Burma
Protesters with placards bearing the image of detained Myanmar civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi sit on a street before holding a candlelight vigil during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on March 12, 2021. / AFP
The junta’s chief peace negotiators, Lieutenant General Yar Pyae and retired Lieutenant General Khin Zaw Oo, met jailed civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyitaw Prison on May 27 and June 4, according to sources.
“[The two] told her about what is happening outside, and asked her to tell the People’s Defense Forces [PDFs] to stop [fighting],” a source told The Irrawaddy.
Since the 2021 coup, the regime has been battling an armed resistance movement and still does not have control over the country. More than two years on, the resistance shows no signs of diminishing and remains widespread across the country, inflicting serious casualties on regime troops, especially in resistance strongholds Kayah, Karen and Chin states and Sagaing and Magwe regions.
The ousted State Counselor of the National League for Democracy government did not respond to the generals’ demand, the source added.
After Lt-Gen Yar Pyae failed to convince Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta sent Buddhist monk U Ottarathara, who runs a refuge for the homeless on the outskirts of Yangon, to pay a call on NLD patron U Tin Oo at his house on June 8. The monk suggested to him that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should publicly give up her political opposition to the junta and cooperate with it in order to end the country’s escalating armed conflict and achieve peace in Myanmar.
The regime arrested Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on the first day of the coup in February 2021 and tried her on a series of charges. The junta sentenced her to 33 years in total in jail last year. She is now held in solitary confinement in Naypyitaw prison.
