Suu Kyi, Son Reunited After 10 Years

Kim Aris allowed to visit Burma to visit freed mom
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 23, 2010 2:19 AM CST
Aung San Suu Kyi Reunited With Son
Kim Aris shows his arm, tattooed with a symbol from his mother's NLD party's flag, on his arrival at Yangon International Airport.   (AP Photo)

Finally-free political activist Aung San Suu Kyi has been reunited with her younger son for the first time in a decade. Kim Aris, 33, greeted well-wishers after clearing immigration at Yangon's airport and removed his jacket to display tattoos of a fighting peacock, the emblem of his mother's pro-democracy party. The British citizen had been in Thailand for weeks awaiting a visa, which was granted after his mother's release from house arrest, the BBC reports.

Suu Kyi, who was kept in detention for most of the last 21 years by Burma's ruling military junta, has yet to be reunited with her elder son, and she has grandchildren she has never seen. Her late husband, British academic Michael Aris, died of cancer in 1999 after being repeatedly refused permission to visit his wife. British diplomats say Aris' visit is private and non-political, although analysts expect that both her supporters and the junta will be playing close attention to his visit. (More Burma stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X