More than 100 supporters of jailed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi rallied in Sydney on Saturday, calling for the release of thousands of political prisoners and expressing concerns about upcoming elections planned by the ruling junta.
Aung San Suu Kyi Supporters Protest in Australia, Globally
Organisers said the protest at Martin Place was part of recent demonstrations around the globe tied to the Japanese manga and anime, One Piece. The Sydney rally was led by Ms. Suu Kyi’s son, Kim Aris.
Similar protests took place in Melbourne, with another planned for Perth later on Saturday. Burmese Australian lawyer Koko Aung, who helped organise the Sydney rally, told ABC News there were also demonstrations planned in Japan, Korea, the UK and US.
“It’s a global event and I’m sure that all the Burmese will turn up,” he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in detention since the military seized power in a coup in February, 2021. (Supplied)
Aung Aung said the movement was strongly supported across generations, but particularly important for younger Burmese people due to the threat of military conscription. Younger Burmese can be drafted and forced to fight for the military regime against their own people, he said, calling it “very unethical.”
Politics, Prisoners and Solidarity
The main aim of the rally was to demand the unconditional release of the more than 22,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, including Ms. Suu Kyi and former president U Win Myint, who was also imprisoned after the government was overthrown in a coup in 2021. Political prisoners are reportedly treated extremely poorly by the junta.
“We don’t even know if she is alive or not.”
Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint (left) have both been in jail since the 2021 military coup. (AP: Aung Shine Oo/File)
Protesters also oppose elections announced by the junta, the first stage of which is due to be held on December 28. Critics have said they are little more than a sham and an attempt to legitimise the junta’s rule. “How can there be an election when they are still arresting people that were fairly elected by our own people four years ago,” Koko Aung said. “This election is not being supported by Burmese community inside the country or outside the country. We feel that it’s all a staged process.”
Some political prisoners and journalists have been released from jail ahead of the elections, but are being tracked by authorities and rearrested on different charges because they have raised their voice against the current regime.
The Burmese community is more concerned about civil war, scam centres and deadly violence at border crossings than the elections, which Koko Aung described as a “ploy”.
Protesters in Myanmar Charged
The General Strike Coordination Body, the leading non-violent organisation opposing army rule, urged people in Myanmar to join a “silent strike” on Wednesday, which was International Human Rights Day, calling on the public to stay inside homes or workplaces from 10am to 3pm. Images on social media showed uncrowded streets in Yangon and elsewhere.
Independent media in Myanmar reported that authorities had threatened to arrest shopkeepers if they closed to take part in the “silent strike,” a tactic that has been used before.
There have been other “silent strikes” in Myanmar, like the one shown here which was held in 2021. (AP)
Also on Wednesday, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported that authorities were seeking the arrest of 10 activists charged with misleading the public by distributing leaflets against the election around a crowded morning market in Mandalay on December 3. They also led a rally calling for the public to reject the planned elections, abolition of the military conscription law and the release of political prisoners.
Fears for Suu Kyi’s Health
Not much has been seen or heard of Ms. Suu Kyi since she was detained in February 2021 and charged with offences including election fraud and corruption. After years in jail, she was moved in July 2023 to home detention after being pardoned for some of her many convictions, but was reported to have been returned to prison a few months later.
Her son, Mr. Aris, has for years been saying she required urgent medical attention and Myanmar’s exiled National Unity Government has called on the international community to pressure the junta into providing appropriate medical treatment. In September, Mr. Aris told ABC News he feared his mother could die in a “hellhole” prison.
Myanmar’s junta is ruled by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. (Reuters: Stringer/File Photo)
Ms. Suu Kyi has spent long stints of her life in detention, first held under house arrest in 1989. In 1991, while still detained, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy. She was finally fully released from house arrest almost 20 years later.
She went on to lead her party, the National League for Democracy, to an election win in 2015. Under a constitution written by Myanmar’s military rulers, she was prevented from becoming president because her children have foreign citizenship. To get around this, she assumed power via a new role — state counsellor, also serving as minister of foreign affairs and minister in the president’s office.
Her time in power was not without controversy, including a violent crackdown on the Rohingya community by the military, leading to accusations of human rights abuses, war crimes, including genocide, mass rape, killings and torture. Ms. Suu Kyi denied her government had committed genocide, but has been condemned for not doing more to prevent it.
After several convictions at multiple trials since 2021, Ms. Suu Kyi was sentenced to 27 years’ jail for offences including incitement, corruption and election fraud. She has long denied the charges on which she was convicted, which have been seen by her supporters as trumped up and used to remove her from politics.
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