Shorouk Express
Aung San Suu Kyi’s son has made a direct plea to the military junta in Myanmar holding her in solitary confinement to release her on the fourth anniversary of her arrest.
The imprisonment of the democratically elected leader during the military coup on Feb 1, 2021, has been “deeply painful” but goes beyond a family story, Kim Aris said.
“She is the last flame of hope for peace and democracy,” he told The Independent. “She must be freed. The flame must not be allowed to be snuffed out.”
His call came as he handed a letter into the Myanmar embassy in London calling for her to be set free and after the release of Independent TV’s documentary Cancelled: The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi.
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The film triggered calls from three former foreign secretaries, William Hague, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw, for her to be freed following her arrest on “trumped up” charges after a coup nearly four years ago.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy made a major intervention on the anniversary of the military to demand that Ms Suu Kyi be released.
Mr Aris received no response when he knocked on the door of the embassy and so had to post his letter. A man arriving at the address only a few minutes later was swiftly allowed in.
“For the military junta in Burma to hold a frail 79-year-old woman in solitary confinement in jail for daring to ask for her country’s freedom is not just wrong, as her son it is also deeply painful,” he said.
“I will never stop fighting for her to be released after her appalling treatment by a military regime who used trumped-up charges to deny her a second term in office and prevent her being free to fight democratic elections.
“The government fear the will of the people. It is now four years since she was last jailed, following decades of loss of freedom. We will never stop fighting for Burma and her people.”
The 79-year-old former Nobel Peace Prize has become a deeply divisive and controversial figure internationally after failing to speak out on her country’s extreme violence against its Rohingya Muslim minority.
Ms Suu Kyi raised her two children, Kim and his brother Alexander, in the UK after studying at Oxford and marrying a British academic Michael Aris.
She returned to Myanmar in 1988, initially to nurse her sick mother before becoming caught up in the pro-democracy movement in the country.
She spent nearly 15 of the 21 years between 1989 to 2010 under house arrest, when her fight for democracy became famous across the world.
In 2015 the junta allowed Ms Suu Kyi to become the de facto head of Myanmar following elections, but only if they controlled key ministries, including home affairs and defence, as well as the military budget.
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Four years later, in 2019, she became a global pariah in the eyes of the international community and many human rights organisations after she appeared at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to defend her country’s use of force against the Rohingya.
In 2021, she was imprisoned after the military seized power in a coup which plunged the country into conflict.
Speaking of his family history, Mr Aris talked of his grandfather, considered to be the founder of modern-day Myanmar.
He said: “My grandfather was assassinated fighting for freedom. My father was not allowed to see my mother when he was dying from cancer. My brother and I have had long spells without seeing our mother. But this is beyond our family pain.
“She is the last flame of hope for peace and democracy in Burma. She must be freed. The flame must not be allowed to be snuffed out.”
His call has been supported by politicians and human rights campaigners.
After a screening of the film last week, human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger said: “I think the most difficult issue is for people to have mercy on fallen heroes. Because she was a hero for many of us, including me. But we must do everything we can to see her released.”
And Helena Kennedy, one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers, said: “She may have made some miscalculations along the way but I do think that the world has to reflect again on what she was seeking to achieve. And I think she thought she was preventing the inevitable coup that did in fact take place.”
Watch Independent TV’s documentary Cancelled: The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi.
