Myanmar’s detained ex-leader Suu Kyi receives package from King Charles III

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has received a package from King Charles III, its military-backed government said, releasing the first pictures of the detained Nobel laureate in two months.

Home ministry officials met the country’s former leader on Monday to deliver the parcel containing two books about soil and sealed diplomatic correspondence from the British monarch, Myanmar’s presidential spokeswoman said on her Facebook page. Britain is Myanmar’s former colonial power and King Charles is known to have a keen interest in gardening and the environment.

Accompanying the statement were two images of Suu Kyi meeting two men with their backs to the camera. The pictures appeared to be in a similar room to the last released images of her, when she met a Red Cross representative in August, her first publicised meeting with a foreign official since she was ousted more than five years ago.

Myanmar authorities referred to Suu Kyi as a “special female prisoner” on Tuesday, the first time they have used the term to describe the pro-democracy and human rights advocate, whose global reputation suffered after she rejected accusations of genocide committed against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

Suu Kyi was deposed in a military coup in 2021, triggering an ongoing civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people, according to conflict monitor ACLED.

The coup leader and former military government chief Min Aung Hlaing was installed as civilian president in April following elections that did not include Suu Kyi’s party, and she was moved to house arrest soon afterwards.

Suu Kyi remains detained on charges rights groups say were concocted to return power to the military, which has historically ruled Myanmar since independence.

“I have been extremely lenient toward her,” Min Aung Hlaing said in an interview with Time magazine published last month.

The international community, including Britain, has called for Suu Kyi’s release and access to her as part of efforts to resolve the country’s political crisis, but the government has rejected those calls.