With his mother’s health reportedly deteriorating and almost no reliable information emerging from Myanmar, Kim Aris fears that he may not even be informed if she were to die in detention. The son of Myanmar’s imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi says years of silence and secrecy have left him in agonising uncertainty about her condition and whereabouts.
Speaking to Reuters, Aris said he has not had any direct contact with his 80-year-old mother for several years. Since the military coup in February 2021 that overthrew her elected government, he has received only fragmentary, secondhand updates about her health, including reports of heart problems as well as bone and gum ailments. These scattered details, he said, offer little reassurance and only deepen his anxiety.
Aris firmly rejects the military junta’s plan to hold elections later this month, which many foreign governments and observers have dismissed as a façade designed to legitimise continued military rule. Yet, despite his scepticism, he believes the political moment surrounding the polls could provide a narrow opportunity to ease his mother’s situation.
“She has ongoing health issues, and nobody has seen her for more than two years,” Aris said during an interview in Tokyo. “She hasn’t been allowed contact with her lawyers, let alone her family. Honestly, for all I know, she could already be dead.”
He added that junta chief Min Aung Hlaing may have his own calculations when it comes to Suu Kyi. If the military leader were to use her detention as a political tool—perhaps by releasing her or placing her under house arrest to placate public anger before or after the elections—Aris said even that would be preferable to the current silence.
“I imagine Min Aung Hlaing has his own agenda regarding my mother,” Aris said. “If he wants to use her to calm the population around the elections, then at least that would be something.”
A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government did not respond to requests for comment.
Historically, Myanmar’s military has often released prisoners to coincide with national holidays or politically significant events. Suu Kyi herself was freed in 2010, just days after elections, ending a previous long stretch of detention that she spent largely under house arrest at her family home by Yangon’s Inya Lake.
Following her release, she went on to lead Myanmar as its de facto civilian leader after the landmark 2015 elections, the first genuinely contested national vote in 25 years. However, her international standing later suffered due to accusations that her government failed to stop, and in some cases defended, military operations against the Rohingya Muslim minority—actions the United Nations later described as genocidal.
Myanmar has remained mired in conflict since the 2021 coup, which sparked widespread protests and an armed resistance movement that has since seized large areas of territory across the country. Suu Kyi is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges including incitement, corruption, and election fraud—allegations she has consistently denied.
Aris believes his mother is being held in the capital, Naypyitaw. He said the last letter he received from her, about two years ago, described the harsh conditions of her confinement, including extreme heat during the summer and severe cold in winter.
With global attention increasingly focused on crises elsewhere, Aris fears Myanmar is being forgotten by the international community. He hopes to use the junta’s planned elections—set to begin in phases from December 28 and the first since the coup—as leverage to persuade foreign governments, particularly Japan, to increase pressure on the military and demand his mother’s release.
“Because of these upcoming elections that the military is trying to stage—elections we all know are completely unfair and nowhere near free—I feel there is a small window of opportunity,” he said. “It would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.”
Aris noted that when his mother once enjoyed greater international respect, it was far harder for the world to ignore Myanmar’s internal repression. That changed after the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine state undermined her global reputation, he said, using the country’s former name, Burma.
Now a British citizen, Aris largely stayed out of the public eye until recent years. He continues to insist that his mother was not complicit in the military’s campaign against the Rohingya. While Myanmar’s constitution limited her authority over the armed forces, Suu Kyi acknowledged at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2020 that war crimes may have occurred, even as she rejected allegations of genocide.
During his visit to Japan, Aris said he met with politicians and government officials to urge them to take a firmer stance against Myanmar’s military rulers and to refuse recognition of the upcoming elections.
When asked what his mother might think of his activism, Aris grew reflective. “I think she’d be incredibly sad that I’ve had to do this,” he said. “She always wanted me to stay out of it. But I don’t really have a choice anymore. I am her son, after all. And if I don’t speak up for her, I can’t expect anyone else to.”
