Thai foreign minister confirms meeting with Myanmar’s Suu Kyi By Reuters

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Protesters hold up a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi and raise three-finger salutes, during a demonstration to mark the second anniversary of Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Bangkok, Thailand, February 1, 2023. REU

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JAKARTA (Reuters) – Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai on Wednesday said he had met with Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and that she was in good health.

The 78-year-old Nobel peace laureate has been jailed for 33 years for a multitude of offences and was arrested in February 2021 when the military launched a coup against her elected government. She denies wrongdoing.

Don gave no details of when or where the meeting with Suu Kyi took place. She is being held in an annex of a prison in the capital Naypyitaw and has been denied visits, including from her legal team.

Don, who caused a stir last month when he invited ASEAN counterparts to a meeting aimed at re-engaging with Myanmar’s ostracised military rulers, said the objective of seeing Suu Kyi was in line the bloc’s peace plan.

The so-called five-point consensus of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is the only official diplomatic process in play for achieving peace in Myanmar. ASEAN has barred the generals from its high-level meetings over their failure to honour the agreement.

“(The meeting) is an approach of the friends of Myanmar, who would like to see a peaceful settlement,” Don told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Jakarta.

Suu Kyi has been convicted of more than a dozen offences, ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption and breaches of a state secrets law, in trials dismissed around the world as a sham.

She has called the charges absurd and is appealing the convictions at the Supreme Court.

The 2021 coup plunged Myanmar into political and social chaos, with the junta drawing global condemnation for its heavy-handed crackdown on opponents such as Suu Kyi.