Myanmar’s State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has spent a total of 19 years in detention since 1989, according to the Burma Campaign UK rights group.
The 79-year-old Nobel laureate is in her fourth period of detention since 1989 and was detained during the February 1, 2021, coup against her National League for Democracy (NLD) government. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to 27 years in prison under various charges which she denied. She is reportedly in solitary confinement in prison.
She was sentenced to three terms of house arrests, spanning 15 years between 1989 and 2010 under previous military rulers.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has overwhelming public support and has gained clear mandates in every election she has contested since 1990.
The NLD won another landslide in the 2020 general election. But the military annulled the results after its proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, and its allies failed to win the 26 percent of seats necessary to secure the presidency.
Under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, the armed forces were designated 25 percent of parliamentary seats, meaning its allies only needed to secure 26 percent of the remaining seats to pick the president and form an administration.
“Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners are being illegally detained by the Burmese military and should be freed immediately,” Burma Campaign UK said.
The group said she failed to defend Rohingya human rights when violence began against the community in 2012 and again in 2017 and defended the military in the International Court of Justice genocide case in 2019. The group said those failings “reduced international support for the struggle for human rights and democracy in the country”.
“The Burmese military detaining Aung San Suu Kyi for a total of 19 years demonstrates how, decades on, they are still afraid of her,” said Mark Farmaner, Burma Campaign UK’s director. “Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners must be freed, and much more done to cut off the supply of money and arms to the Burmese military.”
She is among over 21,000 political prisoners held by the junta, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Since the 2021 coup, the junta has made more than 28,000 arrests, including 589 children. The current regime holds an estimated 10 times the number of political prisoners locked up by previous military regimes.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s youngest son, Kim Aris, whose Burmese name is Ko Htein Lin, has been campaigning for her release ahead of her 80th birthday on June 19.
