Thai foreign minister says he met with Myanmar’s jailed leader Suu Kyi
Protesters hold up a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi and raise three-finger salutes, during a demonstration to mark the second anniversary of Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Bangkok, Thailand, February 1, 2023. REUTERS FILE PHOTO
JAKARTA — Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai on Wednesday said he had met with Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the first foreign official to be granted access to the Nobel laureate since her detention by the military two years ago.
The popular pro-democracy figure faces 33 years in prison for a multitude of convictions, and is being held in an annex of a prison in the capital Naypyitaw and has been denied visits, including from her legal team.
Don said Suu Kyi was in good health but gave no details of when or where the meeting took place.
He added the objective of seeing Suu Kyi was in line the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) plan to achieve peace in the conflict-ridden country.
Don caused a stir last month when he invited Asean counterparts to a meeting aimed at re-engaging with Myanmar’s ostracized military rulers who have been barred from the bloc’s high-level meetings.
Asean’s so-called five-point consensus is the only official diplomatic process in play for achieving peace in Myanmar, but frustration is mounting in the bloc over the junta’s failure to implement the agreement.
“(The meeting) is an approach of the friends of Myanmar, who would like to see a peaceful settlement,” Don told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Jakarta.
Kanchana Patarachoke, a spokesperson for Thailand’s foreign ministry, told reporters the private meeting was held on Sunday and lasted over an hour.
“She was in good health both physically and mentally. (Don) briefed Asean on the retreat this morning,” she said.
Suu Kyi has been convicted of more than a dozen offenses, ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption and breaches of a state secrets law, in trials dismissed around the world as a sham.
She has called the charges absurd and is appealing the convictions at the Supreme Court.
The 2021 coup plunged Myanmar into political and social chaos, with the junta drawing global condemnation for its heavy-handed crackdown on opponents such as Suu Kyi.
At the Asean meeting on Wednesday, foreign ministers emphasized the need for unity on how to address the crisis in Myanmar, Indonesia’s foreign minister Retno Marsudi said.
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