Yangon: One of Aung San Suu Kyi`s two sons is seeking a visa to Myanmar to visit his mother for the first time in a decade, amid speculation the opposition leader will be freed from house arrest after this weekend`s election.
Kim Aris, 33, lives in Britain and last saw his mother in December 2000. He has repeatedly been denied visas ever since by the government in military-ruled Myanmar.
Suu Kyi`s lawyer Nyan Win said today that Aris was in the Thai capital, Bangkok, and was "trying to get a visa to see his mother on her release." He did not say if Aris had already submitted the visa request to the Myanmar Embassy, which could not be immediately reached for comment.
Myanmar will hold its first election in 20 years on Sunday and Suu Kyi`s latest detention expires shortly after on November 13. The military junta has not confirmed if it will release her, but Suu Kyi`s inner circle says they are optimistic.
"We all believe that she will be released by Nov. 13," Nyan Win said.
Sunday`s elections will be the first since Suu Kyi`s opposition party won a landslide victory in 1990 that the junta ignored. The fresh vote, which Suu Kyi`s party has been banned from taking part in, has been slammed internationally as a sham designed to cement military rule in the country.
The 65-year-old Suu Kyi`s political struggle has come at great personal cost. She has been imprisoned or under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years. She was first arrested in 1989 when her sons were 11 and 16.
Her late husband, British scholar Michael Aris, raised their two sons in England. Their eldest son, Alexander Aris, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on his mother`s behalf in
1991 and reportedly lives in the United States.
PTI
