No one made a bid for jailed civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s family home in Yangon, which was put up for auction on Wednesday, according to a source close to the court that ordered the sale.
“There was no bidder, which will be reported to the court. Today’s auction has ended in failure,” the source told The Irrawaddy.
The auction came months after Myanmar’s junta-controlled Supreme Court ruled in favor of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s older brother U Aung San Oo, who had demanded that the house be auctioned off and the proceeds shared.
Although the auction failed on Wednesday, the ruling in favor of U Aung San Oo stands and the court can order another auction.
Kamayut District Court set a floor price of 315 billion kyats or nearly US$90 million for the auction, which took place on Wednesday morning at 54 University Avenue.
The 1.9-acre-strip of land was given to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother Daw Khin Kyi by the then government in 1947, following the assassination of her husband, independence hero General Aung San. Daw Khin Kyi lived in the house until her death in 1988.
It was in that very house, which sits on the shores of Inya Lake, that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi served three terms of house arrest spanning 15 years between 1989 and 2010, as a prisoner of ealier military juntas.
Under the previous regime, people in their thousands gathered at the residence’s gate to hear Daw Aung San Suu Kyi deliver speeches promoting democracy and free speech. After she was released from house arrest, the democracy leader received a string of international dignitaries at the house, including then US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 and 2012.
Following the court’s ruling early this year ordering the auction, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers asked the Kamayut District to review its ruling, saying Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not consulted about the pricing of the house, but there has not been any response from that court so far.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested on the day of the coup on Feb. 1, 2021, and sentenced to 33 years in jail on various charges. She has been held in solitary confinement at Naypyitaw Prison ever since.
The regime has repeatedly turned down her lawyers’ requests to meet her.
The lakeside villa has been the source of a bitter dispute between the democracy icon and her estranged elder brother for decades. In 2000, while she was under house arrest, U Aung San Oo sued her, claiming that the house was his.
U Aung San Oo’s original case was thrown out by the courts, but he filed a new suit claiming joint ownership of the property. In 2016, a Yangon court ruled that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi owned the two-story building and half of the land, while another building on the property and the rest of the land belonged to her brother.
In January 2019, U Aung San Oo appealed to the Supreme Court, petitioning for the auction of the residence and a share of the proceeds. The junta-controlled Supreme Court finally ruled in his favor last year, and Kamayut District Court subsequently appointed the date for the auction.
The parallel National Unity Government declared the residence as a national-level cultural heritage in September 2022. The civilian government warned it would take legal action against anyone seeking to own, sell, destroy, alter, or otherwise use the property.
