Aung San Suu Kyi was reportedly injured in the March earthquake

The complaint was made by her lawyers and her Foundation, who – on her 80th birthday – released information received from ‘concordant sources’ about the damage suffered in March by the prison in Naypyidaw where the Burmese democratic leader is being held. ‘We fear she may die: we demand her immediate and unconditional release’. The Guardian newspaper has published some images and details about her days in prison provided by some defectors.

Milan (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Burmese democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in prison since the coup d'état on 1 February 2021, was reportedly injured in her left arm during the earthquake that devastated Myanmar on 28 March. This was reported in a statement released today - on her 80th birthday - by her lawyers together with the Suu Foundation, which supports her battles on behalf of the Burmese people from abroad.

As her son Kim Aris told AsiaNews in this interview published a few days ago, for two years the family has been prevented from receiving direct news from Aung San Suu Kyi. But ‘concordant sources,’ reads the statement released today, ‘indicate that the prison where she is being held, to which neither her family nor her lawyers have ever been allowed access, was damaged by the tremors, and she was injured in her left arm in the collapse.’ This is another reason why the foundation is reiterating the request made by the United Nations for her “immediate and unconditional release” and that of all political prisoners, as a step towards peace and reconciliation in Myanmar.

‘We have serious reasons to fear that she may die in prison while the world remains indifferent,’ denounce lawyers Francois Zimmeray and Catalina de la Sota. ‘Given her age and the absolute secrecy in which she has been kept since 2021, we are extremely concerned about the injury she appears to have suffered.’

Just yesterday, a partial crack in this wall of silence was offered by the British newspaper The Guardian, which published a video and some documents obtained from a defector from the Burmese military regime showing images and details of the conditions of detention. The video is from a closed-circuit camera and refers to a trial hearing that took place in December 2022.

A Burmese prison source who last saw her in early 2024 told the British newspaper that “her voice and gait remain unchanged; she has stopped wearing flowers in her hair, partly because she no longer wants to”. Prison records seen by The Guardian show that Aung San Suu Kyi's days begin at 4.30 a.m. and end at around 8.30 p.m. Every morning she meditates for over an hour and in the evening she exercises by walking around the room, using Buddhist rosaries throughout the day.

One entry reports that the most substantial meal of the day consisted of “two spoonfuls of rice, chicken, fish ball soup, two pieces of chocolate and a piece of dragon fruit”. Meals are generally sparse: “two half fried eggs” for breakfast; small portions of rice, meat or fish for lunch; soup and bread for dinner. Aung San Suu Kyi receives newspapers controlled by the junta, which provide her with some information about the civil war that has been ravaging the country since 2021.

The charges against the Nobel Peace Prize winner - incitement, electoral fraud and corruption - have been dismissed by human rights groups as a farce. In August 2023, the military junta granted her a partial pardon, “reducing” her sentence to 27 years, which means she would be released at the age of 105. According to the monitoring group Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, Aung San Suu Kyi is one of more than 29,200 people detained in Myanmar since the 2021 coup.