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, 81, 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 2015 election, she was deposed in a military coup in 2021, triggering an ongoing civil war that has killed more than 100,000 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. 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”.
Weeks later, 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.
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