Myanmar’s police chief yesterday denied detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was on hunger strike after her party said she has been refusing food for three weeks.
Khin Yee told reporters a lawyer and doctor had visited the Nobel peace laureate, who has spent most of the past 19 years under house arrest.
“We allowed lawyer U Kyi Win to visit Daw Suu Kyi three times as she requested, as well as her doctor Tin Myo Win for her medical check-up,” the police chief told a press conference.
“According to their report back to us, we haven’t heard anything about Daw Su Kyi being on hunger strike in her house,” he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy party reported on Friday that she had been refusing food supplies for the past three weeks but stopped short of claiming she was on hunger strike.
The 63-year-old is allowed little contact with the outside world, but in recent weeks has refused even the rare meetings that the junta has offered her, declining to meet its liaison officer this week.
She also refused to meet visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari last month, fueling speculation about her motives, with analysts saying she was trying to express her frustration with the slow pace of the regime’s “dialogue” with her.
The police chief was joined by ministers from the ruling junta for the press conference held in the remote and newly built capital Naypyidaw.
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