Suu Kyi breakthrough puts fresh pressure on Myanmar junta US and ASEAN demand her immediate releaseThe United States and ASEAN have demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi, days after Myanmar's detained former leader was allowed to meet a foreign official for the first time since the military coup of 2021. The meeting with Arnaud de Baecque, the International Committee of the Red Cross representative in Myanmar, produced the first independently verifiable photographs of Suu Kyi since she was removed from power more than five years ago. The development has provided rare evidence that the 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner is alive, but it has also intensified international pressure on Myanmar's military authorities. Washington called for Suu Kyi's "immediate and unconditional release", as well as the release of other political prisoners and greater humanitarian access to detainees. The Philippines, which currently chairs the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, issued a separate statement making the same demand. A carefully timed openingASEAN welcomed the Red Cross visit as a possible first step towards regular access for Suu Kyi's family, lawyers, doctors and humanitarian organisations. But the timing has attracted considerable attention. The visit came shortly before Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing was due to travel to Bangkok, as the junta seeks to rebuild regional relationships after years of international isolation. Suu Kyi's son, Kim Aris, said seeing proof that his mother was alive was the first positive development concerning her in more than five years, but warned that the visit must not be the last. Myanmar's military has given little information about Suu Kyi's health, whereabouts or exact detention conditions. Suu Kyi remains a bargaining chipAnalysts have suggested the sudden access may have been deliberately timed as the junta attempts to present itself as more open to dialogue. The military seized power in February 2021, triggering a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Suu Kyi was subsequently imprisoned on a series of charges that human rights groups have described as politically motivated. Her sentence was later commuted and she was moved from prison to house arrest, but authorities have refused to disclose her precise location or provide regular independent access. ASEAN has excluded Myanmar's military leadership from its major summits since the coup, although Thailand has pushed for the country to be brought back into regional diplomacy. The bloc now wants its special envoy to meet all sides of the conflict, including Suu Kyi — access the junta has so far refused. For Myanmar's generals, allowing the Red Cross meeting may have been a carefully calculated diplomatic gesture. For Washington and ASEAN, however, it has created a new opportunity to demand something far more significant: that the door opened for one visit remains open — and that Suu Kyi is finally released. SOURCE
