Myanmar’s jailed former leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was recently moved from Naypyitaw Prison to house arrest, sources told The Irrawaddy.
She has been moved to house arrest at the 6th Military Operations Command (MOC) headquarters in Pyinmana overseen by the junta’s Naypyitaw Command, according to the sources. Ousted President U Win Myint was detained there during his trial after the 2021 putsch.
A team of 10 security personnel including two officers are guarding the Nobel laureate at the 6th MOC, according to the sources, who added that the team is headed by a military intelligence officer.
The 6th MOC is located in Thae Phyu Village in Pyinmana Township. Its commander is a brigadier general who concurrently serves as a general staff officer at the War Office headquarters.
Since Friday, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s grocery list has only included items for one person, the sources said. Previously, she requested groceries not only for herself but also for people living with her in Naypyitaw Prison.
“For example, when she asked for a traditional Myanmar snack during the Thingyan Festival, she asked for portions for six. When she asked for other foods, she asked for larger portions to share with others,” a source told The Irrawaddy.
The Irrawaddy has also learned that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to take her belongings from the prison this time, prompting speculation that the move will be permanent.
The transfer to house arrest follows the Myanmar junta’s denial last week of a request by former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen for talks with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
It was reported in April that she had been transferred from prison, but those reports were never confirmed by the junta, which said only that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her deposed President U Win Myint were among elderly prisoners given special care amid the summer heatwave.
For a week after the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was kept at her State Counselor’s residence in Naypyitaw. On Feb. 9, she was moved to the house of the deputy commander of Naypyitaw Command, where she remained during her trial.
After the trial—condemned by rights groups as a sham designed to shut her out of politics—she was moved to a cell in a standalone building in Naypyitaw Prison to serve a 27-year sentence imposed by a junta court.
Since then she has been held incommunicado, including from her son and lawyers. The regime has denied requests from international envoys of the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, though it allowed then-Thai foreign minister Don Pramudwinai to meet with her last year. According to the regime, the two talked in private for nearly one-and-a-half hours and the details of their conversation were kept private.
