YANGON, Sept 7 — Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is suffering from worsening heart problems and requires urgent medical attention, her son said on Friday, in an appeal for her immediate release from “cruel and life-threatening” custody.
Kim Aris told Reuters that his 80-year-old mother, who has been in military custody since a 2021 coup that deposed her government, had requested to see a cardiologist about a month ago, but he was unable to confirm if this had happened.
“Without proper medical examinations … it is impossible to know what state her heart is in,” he said by phone from London. “I am extremely worried. There is no way of verifying if she is even alive.”
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has also suffered from bone and gum issues, Aris said, adding it was likely she had been injured in an earthquake in March that killed more than 3,700 people. In a Facebook video, he appealed for Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Myanmar to be released.
Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun told state media on Saturday evening that reports about her health were aimed at distracting from military chief Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to China, where he met with President Xi Jinping and attended a military parade.
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s health is good. They are fabricating this information because we are in China and our Myanmar leader is doing so many activities and they want to hide this news,” he said on MRTV.
Suu Kyi, a long-standing symbol of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, is serving a 27-year sentence for offences including incitement, corruption and election fraud, all of which she denies.
Myanmar has been gripped by violence since the February 2021 coup, which crushed mass rallies and sparked a widespread armed uprising. — Reuters
