Myanmar’s detained democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi met the nation’s Red Cross representative on Monday, the president’s office said, the first publicised meeting between her and a foreign official since she was ousted in a 2021 coup.
The military deposed Suu Kyi in February 2021, jailing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and triggering an ongoing civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people on all sides.
The coup leader and former junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, was installed as civilian president in April following highly restricted elections.
Later that month, Suu Kyi, now 81, was moved to house arrest after Min Aung Hlaing said he had commuted the rest of her sentence. She was detained on a host of charges which rights groups say were concocted to sideline her and her popular National League for Democracy party.
The president’s office said in a statement that Arnaud de Baecque, the resident representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Myanmar, met Suu Kyi on Monday morning.
In photos released by the president’s office, Suu Kyi is seen shaking hands with a man who appears to be de Baecque. Another image shows Suu Kyi cutting a birthday cake, and yet another shows the cake with text reading: “Happy Birthday Aunty Suu”.