Former Myanmar Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Transferred to House Arrest Amid Heatstroke Concerns
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Myanmar, has been transferred from prison to house arrest, according to the military government, in order to prevent heatstroke. This move affects not only Suu Kyi but also other elderly inmates, as stated by General Major Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the military government.
The 78-year-old Suu Kyi has been detained since the military coup over three years ago. Conditions in Myanmar are marked by civil war-like conflicts, with the army fighting various insurgents. Some Western countries have accused the military of atrocities, which it denies.
The state of emergency in Myanmar was extended for another six months at the end of January. The military coup on February 1, 2021, led by Min Aung Hlaing, ousted the democratically elected government and resulted in thousands of arrests and hundreds of deaths at the hands of security forces.
Myanmar's army justified the removal of the government citing alleged electoral fraud in the November 2020 parliamentary elections, where Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won by a landslide. Suu Kyi and other political leaders were detained at that time and were convicted in multiple trials on charges including treason, bribery, and violations of the telecommunications law. Although Suu Kyi's sentence was reduced to 27 years, she continues to deny the accusations.
The military has long claimed that only it is capable of holding the country together with its 53 million inhabitants and numerous ethnic minorities, justifying its claim to a central political role.
