After nearly six years in detention, Aung San Suu Kyi's first words to her son were a question about his health.
"And then I said all the family was sending their love and asked after her health," said Kim Aris, who spoke by phone with his 81-year-old mother on Thursday, their first direct conversation since the 2021 military coup toppled the democratically elected Myanmar government she led.
The 20-minute call, which Aris believes the military monitored, offered a rare glimpse of how the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate is being held. She was first sentenced in 2021, with consecutive trials through 2022 bringing her total sentence to 33 years on corruption and electoral fraud charges, widely condemned by the U.S., Western countries, and human rights groups as fabricated. The sentence was later reduced, leaving her with 18 years still to serve.
Little has been known about her condition since the coup, which triggered a civil war that has killed about 100,000 people, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event data, a conflict monitoring organization. The UN says the conflict has displaced millions.
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