Although detained by Myanmar’s military government on a slew of charges, ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi was able to hold a small birthday celebration during a court appearance Monday, a legal official said.
Suu Kyi, whose elected government was overthrown by the army in February last year, turned 77 on Sunday.
She is among over 11,124 people currently detained for opposing military rule, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which keeps detailed tallies of civilians jailed or killed by government forces.
The military’s seizure of power met with widespread resistance and some U.N. experts now describe Myanmar as being in a civil war.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won a landslide election victory in 2020, and she remains widely regarded by Myanmar’s people as the country’s legitimate leader. She is admired for leading a long, nonviolent struggle to restore democracy in Myanmar, for which she won a Nobel Peace Prize. But once-admiring foreign sympathizers blame her for doing little or nothing to stop atrocities committed by security forces against the Muslim Rohingya minority in 2017.
