Myanmar has delivered presents from Britain’s King Charles to Aung San Suu Kyi, releasing rare photos of the imprisoned former leader in what critics said was a stunt by the country’s military to end diplomatic isolation.
A presidential spokesperson said on social media that home ministry officials handed over two gardening books on soil, “along with one sealed envelope and a sealed diplomatic pouch”, from King Charles, who is known to have an interest in planting and the environment.
Photos showed the Nobel Peace laureate smiling in a wood-panelled room, a paper calendar on the wall behind her.
Suu Kyi, ۸۱, the daughter of the assassinated national independence hero Gen Aung San, has spent much of her life in and out of house arrest for leading pro-democracy movements. She is now serving multiple sentences under house arrest at an undisclosed location in Naypyidaw, the capital.
Over her lifetime, the country’s military rulers have been cautious about locking Suu Kyi away in prison due to her beloved domestic status and international prominence, particularly in Britain, where she lived and married an Oxford academic. Most other political prisoners languish in jail.
Despite winning a ۲۰۱۵ election, she was deposed in a military coup in ۲۰۲۱, triggering an ongoing civil war that has killed more than ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ people, according to the independent conflict monitor ACLED. Since then, Suu Kyi’s whereabouts and health have been difficult to determine until an International Committee of the Red Cross visit in August.
Coup leader and former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was installed as civilian president in April after elections that were widely condemned as a sham, and has been making efforts to rebuild regional and international diplomatic ties.
Kim Aris, Suu Kyi’s son who lives in London, said in a statement that he welcomed Charles’s gifts but warned their delivery should not be exploited by the regime.
“We must not allow the military regime to use such selective disclosures to create an illusion of normality or gain international legitimacy,” he said. “My mother’s fundamental human rights continue to be violated.”
Min Aung Hlaing remains under US sanctions for human rights abuses, including the ۲۰۱۶-۲۰۱۷ mass killings and expulsions of Rohingya Muslims that Washington considers a genocide.
The former commander-in-chief has recently conducted several regional visits to rebuild bilateral ties with neighbours, after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc barred him from its summits for not following an Asean-brokered peace plan.
During his most recent trip to Malaysia this month, the leader was given an official welcome and honour guard. Min Aung Hlaing earlier visited Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Phil Robertson, director at the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates (AHRLA) group, said the Suu Kyi book photo op was part of Myanmar’s “quest for global legitimacy”.
“The bottom line is Asean has grown tired of arguing with Min Aung Hlaing and Myanmar’s intransigent military leaders and having nothing to show for it, and they desperately want to move the bloc on to other, more cheery issues,” he said.
“So as the Asean dominoes fall to the Myanmar charm offensive, they just want to make their regional capitulation look good – and that requires Myanmar to play its part by trotting out Suu Kyi at occasional intervals to receive their latest beneficence.”
Min Aung Hlaing has also made efforts to reach out to Donald Trump’s administration, saying in a September interview with Time magazine that “it would be ideal if the US could cooperate with us”.
Weeks later, Reuters reported that the US and Myanmar officials had held talks in Naypyidaw and Tokyo, in part to shut down scam centres that target Americans, but which could be broadened to exploitation of Myanmar’s mineral deposits.
The US state department has said it is re-examining “the range of tools the United States has historically leveraged to promote core interests in the country”. China has become Myanmar’s key global partner.
Myanmar has always denied the accusations of genocide, and Suu Kyi, who held the role of state counsellor at the time of the atrocities, defended the country at the international court of justice, disappointing many in her global support base.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
