Detained Aung San Suu Kyi receives UK royal package: Myanmar government

Aung San Suu Kyi received books, an envelope and a diplomatic communication from King Charles, Myanmar authorities say.

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YANGON: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi received a package from Britain's King Charles on Monday (Oct 19), authorities said, releasing the first pictures of the detained Nobel laureate in two months and describing her as a "special female prisoner".

It is the first time Myanmar authorities have used the term to describe Aung San Suu Kyi, who was deposed in a military coup in 2021, triggering an ongoing civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people, according to monitor ACLED.

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

Home ministry officials met her on Monday to deliver a package of two books about soil, "one sealed envelope, and a sealed diplomatic communication sent by King Charles of the United Kingdom to the special female detainee", Myanmar's presidential spokeswoman said on her Facebook page.

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Britain is Myanmar's former colonial power and the monarch is known to have a keen interest in gardening and the environment.

Accompanying the statement were two images of Aung San 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 her ouster.

Fact-checkers from AFP examined the latest photos and found no evidence of manipulation using Meta Generative AI or OpenAI tools.

ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus

Following a 2021 military coup, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has excluded Myanmar from high-level meetings as it has yet to make meaningful progress on the bloc's Five-Point Consensus to end hostilities. 

During a meeting in April 2021, all ASEAN leaders reached a consensus about the situation in Myanmar.

The five points are:

First, there shall be immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar and all parties shall exercise utmost restraint.

Second, constructive dialogue among all parties concerned shall commence to seek a peaceful solution in the interests of the people.

Third, a special envoy of the ASEAN chair shall facilitate mediation of the dialogue process, with the assistance of the secretary-general of ASEAN.

Fourth, ASEAN shall provide humanitarian assistance through the AHA Centre.

Fifth, the special envoy and delegation shall visit Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned.

Aung San 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.

In response to questions from AFP the Foreign Office in London did not say whether British diplomats had sought to deliver the package in person, or been refused permission to do so.

Britain condemns what it describes as Aung San Suu Kyi "arbitrary detention" and calls for her immediate and unconditional release.

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