The Myanmar Presidential Office stated that detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with a representative of the country’s Red Cross on the 3rd. This marks her first publicly announced meeting with a foreign official since she was ousted in the 2021 military coup.
AFP reported that the presidential office released a statement: "Mr. Arnold D’Becque, the resident representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Myanmar, met with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi this morning."
The military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, imprisoning the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and sparking a civil war that continues to this day.
Coup leader and former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing became civilian president in April after heavily restricted elections.
Later that same month, after Min Aung Hlaing announced a commutation of her remaining sentence, the 81-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi was moved to house arrest.
She was detained on multiple charges after the coup, which human rights groups say were fabricated to sideline her from politics.
Photos released by the presidential office show Aung San Suu Kyi shaking hands with a man appearing to be D’Becque. Another photo shows Aung San Suu Kyi cutting a birthday cake. There is also a photo showing the cake with the words “Happy Birthday Auntie Su” written on it.
AFP was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of these photos, but AI tools detected no signs of forgery.