Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi at 81: son pays tribute to mother’s spirit that ‘cannot be caged’

The son of Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said his mother’s “spirit cannot be caged”, in a moving video greeting for her 81st birthday – a milestone she again marks while confined by the junta.

Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader until the 2021 coup removed her administration, was jailed for 33 years following that military takeover on charges including election fraud and corruption.

International observers and her pro-democracy supporters say the allegations were entirely fabricated to remove her from the political scene as the junta seized power.

The 2021 coup – led by then senior general Min Aung Hlaing – has plunged the country into civil war. Thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced as rebels fight the junta across swathes of the country.

In April, the junta said Suu Kyi, who founded the National League for Democracy party, had been moved to house arrest after her sentence was reduced to 18 years.