Myanmar releases photos of Aung San Suu Kyi meeting Red Cross official, first foreign contact since 2021 coup

First meeting since the coup

Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with Arnaud de Baecque, the resident representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Myanmar, on Monday morning in the capital Naypyidaw. The president's office announced the meeting, and government spokeswoman Khine Khine Soe confirmed it via Telegram. It is the first publicly known contact between Suu Kyi and a foreign official since the military ousted her elected government in February 2021. The military-backed administration released several photographs of the encounter, showing the 81-year-old shaking hands with a man who appears to be de Baecque and cutting a birthday cake with the inscription "Happy Birthday Aunty Suu".

We are happy to see her photo like this if it's really her meeting with the ICRC. We can know now that she's alive.

The images could not be immediately verified by AFP, but AI analysis found no signs of fabrication. The ICRC has been contacted for comment.

Health concerns and proof of life

Suu Kyi's exact whereabouts and health have been unknown since her detention. In late April 2026, after former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was installed as civilian president following highly restricted elections, authorities announced that Suu Kyi had been moved from prison to house arrest. Her original 33-year sentence, handed down in trials widely criticised for lack of due process, was reduced to 18 years under two prisoner amnesty schemes earlier this year. On 30 April, state media released a picture of her seated on a wooden bench with two uniformed officials, but the veracity of that image was quickly questioned.

Her son, Kim Aris, a 48-year-old British national, has repeatedly demanded independently verified proof that his mother is alive. After the April photo, he wrote on Facebook: "More than five years after the coup, there is still no credible, independently verified proof that my mother is alive."

Moving my mother, an 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from one secret place to another is not freedom. She remains a hostage. Show proof of life.

He added that when authorities announced the move to house arrest, "they expected the world to look away". Aris has also criticised India for rolling out the red carpet for Min Aung Hlaing, urging the world's largest democracy to stand on the side of human rights.

Political and military backdrop

The 2021 coup plunged Myanmar into a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people on all sides, according to France 24, and displaced millions. The military has faced armed resistance from ethnic armed organisations and pro-democracy militias. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, which won a landslide in the 2020 election, has been sidelined, and rights groups say the numerous charges against her were confected to remove her from political life.

International reactions

Since the coup, Myanmar has been largely ostracised by the international community. The 11-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has excluded the country's leadership from high-level summits. However, neighbouring Thailand has been leading an effort to bring Myanmar back into the diplomatic fold, both bilaterally and through regional channels. The United Nations renewed its call for Suu Kyi's release on her 81st birthday in June. The meeting with the ICRC, a neutral humanitarian organisation, may signal a limited opening by the military authorities, but the anonymous politician from her party stressed: "Aunty should be released immediately as she's being detained unlawfully."