Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Open To Negotiate With Aung San Suu Kyi, Says Myanmar's Military Chief

Open To Negotiate With Aung San Suu Kyi, Says Myanmar's Military Chief

Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since Myanmar's army toppled her government in a coup in February last year.

Myanmar's military chief said Friday the junta is open to negotiations with ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end the crisis sparked by its coup after her trials in a junta-run court have concluded.

"After the legal processes against her according to the law are finished we are going to consider (negotiations) based on her response," Min Aung Hlaing said in a statement.

Suu Kyi, 77, has been detained since the generals toppled her government in a coup on February 1 last year, ending the Southeast Asian country's brief period of democracy.

She has so far been jailed for 17 years for a clutch of charges rights groups say are politically motivated.

Suu Kyi faces decades more in prison if convicted on a raft of other charges she is battling in a closed junta court.

Journalists have been barred from the proceedings, her lawyers gagged from speaking to the media and the junta has given no indication of when her trials might finish.

In July a junta spokesman told AFP it was "not impossible" that the regime would enter into dialogue with Suu Kyi to resolve the turmoil sparked by the military's power-grab last year.

"We cannot say that (negotiations with Suu Kyi) are impossible," Zaw Min Tun told AFP at the time.

Suu Kyi remains a revered figure locally for her courageous opposition to a previous junta, despite her international reputation suffering after she won the 2015 elections and governed in a power-sharing deal with the generals.

But for those currently embroiled in fighting with the military, many have said the movement must go further than what the Nobel laureate led decades ago.

Dissidents today say the goal now is to permanently root out military dominance from the country's politics and economy.

 Stalled diplomacy


Diplomatic efforts by the 10-country bloc Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- of which Myanmar is a member -- have so far failed to halt the bloodshed.

Last year, the bloc agreed on a "five-point consensus", which calls for a cessation of violence and constructive dialogue, but the junta has largely ignored it.

This week UN special envoy Noeleen Heyzer made her first trip to the country since being appointed last year and met junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top military officials.

But she was denied a meeting with Suu Kyi, and rights groups said they had little optimism her visit would persuade the military to end its bloody crackdown and engage in dialogue with opponents of its coup.

More than 2,200 people have been killed and over 15,000 arrested in the military's crackdown on dissent since it seized power, according to a local monitoring group.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
The Great Western Exit: Why Best Citizens Are Fleeing the Rich World [PODCAST]
The New Robber Barons of Intelligence: Are AI Bosses More Powerful Than Rockefeller?
The End of the Old Order [Podcast]
Britain’s Democracy Is Now a Costume
The AI Gold Rush Is Coming for America’s Last Open Spaces [Podcast]
The Pentagon’s AI Squeeze: Eight Tech Giants Get In, Anthropic Gets Shut Out [Podcast]
The War Map: Professor Jiang’s Dark Theory of Iran, Trump, China, Russia, Israel, and the Coming Global Shock [Podcast]
Labour Is No Longer a National Party [Podcast]
AI Isn’t Stealing Your Job. It’s Dismantling It Piece by Piece.
Lawyers vs Engineers: Why China Builds While America Litigates [Podcast]
Churchill’s Glass: The Drunk, the Doctor, and the Myth Britain Refuses to Sober Up From
Apple issues an unusual warning: this is how your iPhone can be hacked without you doing anything
The Met Gala Meets the Age of Billionaire Backlash
Russian Oligarch’s Superyacht Crosses Hormuz via Iran-Controlled Route
Gunfire Disrupts White House Correspondents’ Dinner as Trump Is Evacuated
A Leak, a King, and a Fracturing Alliance
Inside the Gates Foundation Turmoil: Layoffs, Scrutiny, and the Cost of Reputational Risk
UK Biobank Breach Exposes Health Data of 500,000, Listed for Sale on Chinese Platform
KPMG Cuts Around 10% of US Audit Partners After Failed Exit Push
French Police Probe Suspected Weather-Data Tampering After Unusual Polymarket Bets on Paris Temperatures
News Roundup
Microsoft lost 2.5 millions users (French government) to Linux
Privacy Problems in Microsoft Windows OS
News roundup
Péter András Magyar and the Strategic Reset of Hungary
Hungary After the Landslide — A Strategic Reset in Europe
×