Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ‘Abruptly Moved to Secure House Over Thingyan’

Myanmar democratic leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was abruptly moved from Naypyitaw Prison to a specially built secure house in Naypyitaw on the final day of the Thingyan water festival on April 16, The Irrawaddy has learned.

The house is in a neighborhood for military families and surrounded by high fences.

Construction was reportedly rushed to completion, prompting the jailed civilian leader to complain about the smell of fresh paint, according to informed sources.

The day after her relocation, the regime pardoned Myanmar’s last democratically elected President U Win Myint, releasing him to his own family home under tightly controlled circumstances.

But it took another nine days for the regime to announce on April 25 that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had been “allowed to serve the rest of her prison term at a designated residence.”

The 80-year-old democracy leader had spent five years in jail since her arrest during the February 1, 2021 coup, serving a sentence of 35 years on 19 fabricated charges. With various prison term reductions, some 13 years now remain.

It was at this secure house that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi a during his visit to Naypyitaw on April 25.

Sources told The Irrawaddy that the informal meeting was attended by Lieutenant General Yar Pyae, the chair of the National Solidarity and Peace Negotiation Committee, and Police Chief Soe Hlaing, besides other officials.

The session was conducted off the record, with both sides reportedly prohibited from taking official notes or recordings. The Irrawaddy could not independently confirm the details of the meeting.

The only photograph published by regime media last Thursday shows her talking to a pair of uniformed men.

But The Irrawaddy has obtained the original of that photo, a wider shot which shows three uniformed men who have been identified as Deputy Home Affairs Minister Min Thu, Special Branch Police Chief Hlaing Min, and Deputy Police Chief Myo Min Htike.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) on Sunday released a statement warning that the relocation of their party leader from a secret prison to an undisclosed house arrest location “is not a positive political step, but merely a deception.”

A legal source told The Irrawaddy that her legal team must deliver any prison care packages to a designated location in Naypyitaw every Sunday, and they are then forwarded to her on Mondays.

But the lawyers themselves have not been allowed to see her since December 2022.

Her son Kim Aris in a statement last Thursday said, “Moving her is not freeing her. She remains a hostage, completely cut off from the world and under the absolute control of those who continue to unlawfully detain her.”

He added “I still do not know where my mother is […] I remain deeply concerned about whether she is still alive. If she is alive, I ask for proof of life.”

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) secretary Bo Kyi told The Irrawaddy that the relocation is an attempt to quell growing public concern over the condition of the jailed leader.

“Up to this moment, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remains in their hands. The only certain fact is that she is still detained,” he added.

On behalf of the EU, Foreign Affairs and Security Spokeswoman Annita Hipper in a post on social platform X on Saturday called for “full respect of [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s] physical and mental wellbeing, regular access to family and legal counsel.”