Aung San Suu Kyi’s life may be at risk, because she has such serious gum disease she is struggling to eat after more than two years in jail, her son has warned, saying he feels powerless to help her.
Myanmar’s ousted leader, now 78, has not been allowed see a doctor even though she was unable to walk at one point, is suffering from vomiting and dizziness and may have problems with her wisdom teeth, Kim Aris said.
“Nobody outside the prison has seen her for a long time. Now, being unable to eat puts her life at risk. Given how many people lose their lives in prison in Burma, this is of grave concern,” he told the Guardian in an interview from his UK home, using the former name for Myanmar.
In a sign of how serious her condition is, Aris understands officers at the jail where she is being held asked for medical care. Military authorities refused.
“A request for urgent medical care by the prison authorities themselves has been denied by the military, further up the line,” he said.
“From what I hear she’s unable to eat due to gum disease and may have wisdom tooth problems, and was unable to walk at one point. Given her age, this together with vomiting and dizziness, gives reason for serious concerns about her overall health.”
Aris, who as a teenager collected the Nobel peace prize for his jailed mother, has not been able to contact her in any way since she was detained by the military in February 2021, when it ousted her democratically elected government.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent nearly two decades under some form of arrest since 1989, but during previous periods of detention Aris said he was allowed to communicate with her and sometimes visit her.
“Not having any contact whatsoever over the last two-and-a-half years has been tough,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “I do feel somewhat powerless.”
Prior to 2010, during her longest period of detention, the military leadership “actually allowed me to go and spend time with her”, he said. “[They] allowed us to send care packages and letters, but over the last two-and-a-half years we’ve had none of those basic human rights.”
She has been seen only once since the 2021 coup, in images taken in a courtroom in Naypyidaw, and is not allowed to meet her lawyer.
In July, Thailand’s outgoing foreign minister Don Pramudwinai became the first foreign official to be granted access to her. He said Aung San Suu Kyi was in good health and supported dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Aris dismissed that reported stance as “another programme of disinformation” by the military. It would go against the official position of Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government, which rejects dialogue until all political prisoners are released.
He also questioned reports that she had been moved to house arrest.
“They have tried these tactics of appeasing the broader international community by saying that she has been moved to house arrest, which is absolutely not true,” he said. “She’s still in prison.”
Despite her age, Aung San Suu Kyi will have rejected any special treatment, because of her political principles, putting her at greater risk, he said.
“I cannot say for sure what she is being fed, but I do know that she doesn’t accept being treated differently to other prisoners and they are not being treated well. So we can expect her conditions to be similarly appalling,” he added.
Since the coup, the military has struggled to manage fierce opposition to its rule – including an armed resistance – and has resorted to torture, massacres, the torching of villages and airstrikes.
The charges against her, which include incitement, electoral fraud and corruption, have been dismissed by rights groups as “fabricated” attempts to diminish her influence in Myanmar.
She is still hugely popular inside Myanmar for her leadership of the fight for democracy and as the daughter of independence hero Aung San, although her international reputation was tarnished after 2015, when she was widely accused of being apathetic or complicit in the plight of Rohingya Muslims.
Her detention has been widely condemned. The UN security council passed a resolution calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release and an end to violence.
In August the military handed down a partial pardon, which reduced her sentence slightly, so she now faces 27 years in jail – meaning she would be released aged 105. Aris dismissed it as an attempt to improve the regime’s international standing, and called for his mother to get treatment.
“I appeal to the military to release my mother, or at the very least agree to her being urgently treated by her doctor.
“The world can no longer turn a blind eye while letting the military continue their now well-documented brutality against their own citizens with impunity,” he said. “The country is in a worse state than at any point in my life.”
Junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun did not answer when called by the Guardian.
