Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday, a government spokesperson said, in what appeared to be her first public meeting with a foreign official in several years, and which comes after international concerns about her health.
A photograph released by the military-backed government and purporting to show the meeting showed Suu Kyi, 81, in traditional Burmese dress, smiling and shaking hands with the official, who the government named as the ICRC’s resident representative to Myanmar, in a sparse room with a wooden floor and walls.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and for decades the face of Myanmar’s struggle against military rule, has been detained by the military since 2021, when it ousted the civilian government she led in a coup. Since then, the military have kept her exact whereabouts and condition secret as a deadly civil war has engulfed much of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
The meeting came after mounting concerns Suu Kyi’s health was deteriorating and followed a campaign launched by her son Kim Aris demanding the military offer proof she was still alive.
CNN has reached out to the ICRC and Kim Aris for comment on the meeting.
Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi moved to house arrest, military says
The timing of the meeting comes as Myanmar’s junta chief turned president Min Aung Hlaing is scheduled to travel to Thailand on August 6 and will meet with Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. Thailand has being pushing for a meeting with Suu Kyi and has signaled willingness for greater engagement with Myanmar’s military-backed government.
Southeast Asian Foreign Ministers held an informal meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Tin Maung Swe in Bangkok on July 12, their first face-to-face engagement with a representative of the military-backed government since the coup.
