Myanmar assures ASEAN Aung San Suu Kyi is well

Myanmar's foreign minister informed ASEAN's special envoy that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health and being cared for, according to the envoy. Philippine Foreign Minister Maria Theresa Lazaro, ASEAN's special envoy to Myanmar, stated that the Myanmar minister described Suu Kyi as a "sister" whom they would look after.

Lazaro has been seeking access to the 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been detained since the military seized power in a 2021 coup. Suu Kyi is currently serving a 27-year sentence on multiple charges, including incitement and corruption, which her supporters argue are politically motivated to keep her out of power. She has denied all wrongdoing.

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My recollection of the statement of the Myanmar ​foreign minister on Aung San Suu Kyi is that she’s in good health and ​that the premise of how he said this is that she is a ⁠relative, she's a sister and therefore we will take care of her.

The assurance came during an informal meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers with their Myanmar counterpart in Bangkok. This was the first in-person meeting between the bloc's top diplomats and Myanmar's representative since the coup. The meeting aimed to restart a five-year-old peace initiative that has failed to end the ongoing civil war, which has resulted in an estimated 100,000 deaths and displaced millions.

Myanmar's leadership has been excluded from high-level ASEAN meetings due to its failure to implement a five-point peace plan. Despite the country now having a nominally civilian government following elections, former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is president. The ASEAN ministers expressed a desire for the special envoy to be granted access to Suu Kyi to verify the claims about her well-being.

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We also made our comment that if the ASEAN special envoy could be given the ⁠opportunity to ​meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, that would be ​even better, so that we can be able to verify the claims that the foreign minister made.