Searching for Suu Kyi in Myanmar's capital of confusion

Where is Aung San Suu Kyi?

Myanmar's deposed leader is under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw, according to her captors, but exactly where is hard to say in a city experts describe as purpose-built to guard its closed-ranks rulers' secrets.

With a population of just one million and a landmass nine times that of New York, Naypyidaw is a labyrinth of anonymous compounds connected by deserted 20-lane highways through tracts of jungle and paddy.

Min Aung Hlaing, whose 2021 coup ousted Suu Kyi, announced her move from Naypyidaw prison to house arrest in April.

He presented it as an act of mercy marking his metamorphosis from military ruler to civilian president following highly restricted elections.

Critics say it was a ploy to launder his image, arguing that 81-year-old Suu Kyi is no freer than before -- isolated at an undisclosed address in a city opaque to residents and rulers alike.

"Not everyone can know her location," said Thein Tun Oo of the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which backed Min Aung Hlaing for office after winning the polls staged by the junta.

"I don't know," the MP and party spokesman said. "Because I am one of the people."

- Vacant abode -

Naypyidaw -- "The Abode of Kings" -- was named capital in 2005 by Than Shwe, one of Myanmar's previous military rulers.

Urban theorists say its central location, removed from the old port capital Yangon and the second city Mandalay, reflected paranoia over popular uprisings and foreign interventions.

Built in the early 2000s, it feels both serene and ominous with security forces watching over its colossal empty scale.

Its gilded 800-acre (324-hectare) parliament campus is one of the world's largest despite Myanmar's long record of authoritarian rule.

Mobile internet jammers boggle navigation apps, and legions of gardeners often outnumber motorists and pedestrians combined as they manicure lawns along highways stretching towards the horizon.

"Being in the city is its own kind of house arrest," said architect Galen Pardee, an adjunct professor at New York's Columbia University.

It's "the complete opposite of what a traditional urban planner would say makes a good city".

"That's very much on purpose, with a political agenda in mind," he said.

One resident said she had no clue where Suu Kyi could be, adding that she was often bamboozled by even her own whereabouts.

"Everything looks the same to us," said the 25-year-old, anonymous for security reasons. "We are still confused by some roads."

"We do not know where she's kept."

- Arrest away from home -

Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San, lived much of her life abroad before returning in 1988 and leading a campaign for popular rule.

Her early activism earned her 15 years of house arrest in her family's Yangon mansion, which became a pilgrimage point for demonstrators. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

The generals eventually allowed Suu Kyi to rule during a decade-long handover to democracy, only to backtrack with the coup that triggered civil war.

She was jailed on charges rights groups decry as fabrications, and has not been seen publicly since. One Naypyidaw villa where Suu Kyi stayed before taking office has been demolished.

Suu Kyi was entitled as elected leader to a government residence in the capital behind checkpoints impassable without security clearance.

However, the secret of her current location goes deeper than roadblocks.

Police special branch sources from two different jurisdictions said when her house arrest was announced that she had been moved to their patch in areas out-of-bounds even to them.

The confusion remains.

"Even generals do not have her information," one said this week.

Suu Kyi's son Kim Aris said she belonged in Yangon, and any house she was held in was a private prison rather than a residence with home comforts.

"I don't see really how different it is to what she's been subjected to over the past number of years," he said by phone from London.

- Confined to the past -

Min Aung Hlaing staged elections after five years ruling by diktat, securing a walkover for the pro-military USDP in January after excluding Suu Kyi's party.

Naypyidaw's parliament still carries old magazines lauding her, but USDP parliamentarian Aye Chan said "her era is over".

"Even if she's released or whatever, she's not going to play any part -- she's just getting too old," he said.

So where is she?

"I have no idea," he shrugged.

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© Agence France-Presse