US Urges Myanmar to Release Aung San Suu Kyi

The United States on Friday called on Myanmar to immediately release ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi after President Min Aung Hlaing ordered her transfer to house arrest a day earlier, AFP reported.

"We continue to call for her immediate and unconditional release", a US State Department spokesman said. "We urge the regime to ensure Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has proper access to medical care given continued reports of her poor health."

Min Aung Hlaing, a former military junta leader who seized power in 2021, overthrew Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government and later detained her on multiple charges. Human rights organizations say the charges were fabricated to remove her from politics.

The coup triggered a civil war that has killed thousands and displaced around one million people. The president’s office said on Thursday that he had "commuted the remainder of the sentence" of the 80-year-old so she would serve it "at a designated residence".

It was not immediately clear where she would be relocated. A senior source from her dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) party told AFP she was likely to be held incommunicado somewhere in the capital.

(AFP, tasr)