Myanmar’s NUG says junta placed Aung San Suu Kyi in solitary confinement to ‘embarrass’ her
- The shadow government and UN denounced the military for transferring the ousted leader from house arrest to solitary confinement in prison this week
- NUG minister Aung Myo Min said the junta moved Suu Kyi, who was held at secret location in the past, to the detention facility to hurt her emotionally
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun on Wednesday said the Nobel laureate had been transferred to “solitary confinement in prison” and that her future trial hearings would be held within a courtroom in the detention facility.
Since the coup in February 2021, Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest in an undisclosed location in the administrative capital of Naypyidaw with several domestic staff and her dog, Taichito.
This Week in Asia understands that her staff were not allowed to move to the prison facility with her, and the 77-year-old decided not to bring her dog with her.
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Suu Kyi remained sanguine after the transfer, a source with knowledge of the case told AFP on Thursday. “She acts like before and is in strong spirits,” said the source, who requested anonymity. “She is used to facing any kind of situation calmly.”
The transfer marks a major change in the treatment of Suu Kyi, who in her previous stints in detention – during the country’s last period of junta rule – had largely remained under house arrest in her bungalow in Yangon.
Since the military takeover, she has been convicted of several offences and sentenced to 11 years in jail. She also faces various other charges – widely seen as trumped up by the junta – that could amount to a 150-year jail term.
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A spokesman for United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the global body’s officials were “very concerned” for Suu Kyi.
The junta’s move “goes against everything we’ve been calling for, which was her release and the release of … all of the other political prisoners,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday at UN headquarters.
Aung Myo Min, the Human Rights Minister of the National Unity Government (NUG) that opposes junta rule, told This Week in Asia on Friday that the transfer was likely “done on purpose to hurt her emotionally”.
“It is a well-known fact that the charges against her are absurd and the Myanmar people know that she is being framed to discredit and embarrass her,” the official said.
The NUG comprises Suu Kyi allies such as Aung Myo Min who are in exile overseas or in hiding in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi was said to have held a small birthday celebration during a court appearance on Monday. Reports said she brought a cake to the courtroom and shared it with lawyers.
Asked if the celebration might have resulted in her transfer, Aung Myo Min suggested otherwise, saying he believed the junta might have planned to move her to a prison facility well ahead of this week.
“They [junta] might have planned it earlier since they already made up their mind to oppress Suu Kyi. They believe that it would break the revolutionary spirit of the people who are backing her,” he said.
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Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, agreed with that assessment, saying “this is not justice, this is political retribution”.
“To be clear, the charges against her are politically motivated and bogus, and she has been imprisoned by a kangaroo court wholly beholden to the military,” he said.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group that tallies deaths and detentions under junta rule, said Suu Kyi’s predicament was due to “jealousy” on the part of the junta over the public adulation the deposed leader continued to enjoy.
A spokesman said: “The junta cannot defeat her through detaining her because she is loved by so many. Her detention is also counterproductive because people would like to see her at the government position, not in prison.”
Win Myint, who held the position of president until last year’s coup, meanwhile was expected to attend court on Friday for “electoral fraud” charges. The case is the first of the trials involving NLD leaders to be held in a special courtroom within the prison. Sources told BBC Burmese that he too had been transferred to solitary confinement within the detention facility.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
