The case of the missing totem: Aung San Suu Kyi
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Is Aung San Suu Kyi still alive and what evidence exists?
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The Economist. Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. I'm Jason Palmer.
Today on the show, Turkey's plan to benefit from the Iran War and looking to science to determine the ideal amount of sleep.
First up though.
The last time that we can be sure that An San Su Chi was alive was December thirtieth, twenty twenty two, at the conclusion of her show trial.
Aaron Connolly is our Asia Diplomatic Editor.
Myanma's leader has been jailed since 2021 after a military junta overthrew her government. There have been a trickle of reported sightings from Myanmar's prison system, but they're impossible to verify. One former Thai foreign minister says that he met with her, and a defector group has released what they say are logs of her meals and medical care. But the army has refused her lawyer's request to see her. So her son, Kim Eris, Who lives in London has been traveling the world in the past few months, pushing presidents and ministers to demand proof of life from Myanmar's military government.
And this is far from her first time in detention.
That's right. An San Su Chi was in and out of jail and house arrest for about fifteen years total from nineteen ninety to twenty ten. But from house arrest, she continued to lead her party, the National League for Democracy, to an election win in nineteen ninety. And then in nineteen ninety-one, she won the Nobel Peace Prize and became a real icon of international resistance and support for democracy. After winning another landslide election in twenty fifteen, she became state counselor, which is a role akin to prime minister and Myanmar's leader. And she governed in this uneasy coalition or cohabitation with Myanmar's army. But in office, she proved to be no liberal. Most notably, she defended the army that later jailed her against charges of genocide in the case of the atrocities that they had committed.
Against the Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic minority in the west of the country. But she also shut down debate and she jailed journalists, and her policies really isolated Myanmar, forcing it further into China's orbit. And after she was deposed in 2021 by the army, the junta charged her with a range of offenses, really patent fabrications, and sentenced her to 33 years in prison, which was just recently reduced to 27 years.
Why does the Myanmar junta refuse to confirm her whereabouts?
And what about the suggestion that she is in fact dead? I think it would be very difficult to keep something like that under wraps inside Myanmar. An San Suu Chi still has supporters inside the regime. Just last year a group of defectors released what they claim are logs of her meals and her medical care. So if she were dead, I think that word would probably have leaked out by now.
And at the moment the junta has no interest in telling anyone how she is where she is.
Right, so in April the junta said that it had moved her to house arrest. And when asked about her circumstances, officials invariably say that she's in good health, and a photo published at the time of her supposed move to house arrest showed her chatting amiably with a policeman and an army officer inside a nondescript building. But there's no indication that that photo is of recent vintage, and when I spoke to her son, Kim Arris, he said. That he doubts its authenticity. He says that if she is under house arrest, it's not at her home in Yangon, and that her house in Nepura, the capital, has been torn down. So some worry that the lack of evidence of proof of life means that she's either dead or in really bad shape in a way that the military wouldn't want the world to see.
And you said it's not just her son who's interested in securing some kind of proof of life that foreign leaders are getting involved too.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Is Aung San Suu Kyi still alive and what evidence exists?
0:00–3:32
2
Why does the Myanmar junta refuse to confirm her whereabouts?
3:32–6:59
3
What would happen if the junta released Aung San Suu Kyi?
6:59–10:27
4
How could Aung San Suu Kyi’s release affect ASEAN and the UN?
10:27–12:57
5
How is Turkey turning the Iran war into an economic opportunity?
12:57–15:31
6
What are the risks and rewards of Turkey’s new tax incentives for Gulf investors?
15:31–18:34
7
What does the latest research say about the ideal amount of sleep?
18:34–21:13
8
How do sleep duration and organ‑specific aging clocks relate to health?
21:13–24:22