in brief
- Aung San Suu Kyi has barely been seen or heard from in the five years since she was deposed in a military coup.
- Her son is now in Australia as part of a global campaign attempting to put pressure on Myanmar's leaders.
The son of Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sending letters to his mother for years, despite only ever receiving a single response, which was three years ago.
"There's no way of knowing if she's even alive," Kim Aris told SBS News. "Nobody's seen her for years now."
The 80-year-old Nobel Laureate was arrested during a military coup in 2021 and hasn't been seen in public since. Her legal team says it hasn't spoken to her since 2022.
Now, Aris is in Australia, meeting with federal politicians and members of the Burmese diaspora as part of a long-running global campaign to put pressure on Myanmar's ruling military junta to provide proof that his mother is still alive.
"It's not that difficult to provide proof of life. If my mother is alive, there are plenty of ways to show the world," he said.
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Later this month, Aris' global campaign in support of his mother will see him undertake an 81km skateboard journey across London to coincide with Suu Kyi's 81st birthday.
Suu Kyi's many years of confinement
Aung San Suu Kyi — who forged Myanmar's path to democracy — spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010 before becoming the country's de facto leader in 2015.
In 2021, her elected government was toppled during a military takeover and Suu Kyi was arrested once again.
The coup displaced millions and sparked an ongoing civil war that has seen thousands killed.
Retired military commander Min Aung Hlaing seized control of Myanmar and detained Suu Kyi — just as her National League for Democracy party was about to begin its second term — on a range of charges from corruption to violating COVID-19 restrictions.
She denied all charges, and the United Nations described the series of secret trials she was subjected to as a "sham" that would only "deepen rejection of the coup".
'We are worried'
Since Suu Kyi's arrest, Aris said he has only received a single letter from her in 2023.
In April of this year, the junta announced that Suu Kyi would be moved from prison to house arrest. At the time, they released an undated image of her — the legitimacy of which is questioned by Aris and others.
"They want to try and legitimise themselves internationally because the international community have been calling for my mother to be moved to house arrest," he said.
"They want to try and appease the international community."
At the time, Suu Kyi's lawyer said her legal team "cannot imagine that she is no longer alive" but cannot understand why her whereabouts are totally secret, which they say is a violation of all international conventions.
"We are worried about her health."
Accusations of genocide
Suu Kyi lived much of her life abroad, following the assassination of her father, General Aung San — regarded as the founder of modern-day Myanmar — six months prior to independence.
Having lived mainly in the UK, she returned to Myanmar in 1988 to look after her dying mother and to lead the growing revolt against dictator General Ne Win, which resulted in her arrest.
Her subsequent decades under house arrest, emulating the non-violent politics of India's Mahatma Gandhi and US civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King, earned her international respect.
While The Lady, as she became known, was lauded as a harbinger of democracy, her later years in power saw her reputation tarnished, following deadly military crackdowns on Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslim population.
The country currently faces an accusation of genocide at the International Court of Justice, something Suu Kyi spoke out against during her personal defence of the army's actions at the world's highest court of international law.
Min Aung Hlaing faces his own accusations of crimes against humanity during the ongoing civil war.
He became president of the country in April, following a tightly controlled election which excluded Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy — which the military had dissolved.
He struggles to maintain normal relations with ASEAN bloc neighbours who continue to blacklist Myanmar following the coup and continuing "atrocities towards their own citizens," as mentioned at last month's summit.
Australia calls for 'unconditional release'
During his first-ever trip to Australia, Aris met with members of the Burmese diaspora who, since the coup, have been staging rallies in protest of the military regime.
He has also met with politicians, including Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
In a statement to SBS, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Australia "continues to call for the unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and all those who remain unjustly detained in Myanmar".
"We expect her to be permitted contact with her family, access to her lawyers and appropriate medical care," it continued.
Aris told SBS that he still sends care packages and letters to his mother via the British Foreign Office despite never hearing anything back.
He said he hopes his journey will put what he thinks of as a forgotten conflict back in the global spotlight.
"It's been very encouraging, and I hope that my being here will give them strength to keep going."
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