Myanmar auction fails again to attract bidders for the historic home of ousted leader Suu Kyi
BANGKOK (AP) — A fourth attempt by Myanmar's authorities to sell by the home of imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi by auction failed Tuesday when there were no bidders for the property, where she famously was held under house arrest for almost 15 years, a legal official said.
It was not immediately clear if the floor price — the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars — was simply too high or whether warnings by opponents of Myanmar's military government not to buy the house substantially dampened demand.
The 1.9-acre (7,700 square meter) family property on Inye Lake in Yangon, the country's largest city, is viewed by many in Myanmar as a historic landmark because of its close association with Suu Kyi's long nonviolent struggle against military rule for which she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
A legal official familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information, said there had been no bidders at the court-ordered auction held in front of the gates of the property, which once served as an unofficial headquarters for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
The auction followed a bitter decades-long legal dispute between Suu Kyi and her estranged older brother, Aung San Oo, who sought an equal division of the property. Proceeds from the sale were supposed to be split between her and him. Suu Kyi's lawyers had challenged the auction order.
The floor price on Tuesday was set at 270 billion kyats, which is more than $128 million at official rates, or about $62 million at black-market rates, which better reflects the real value of Myanmar's currency. It had been reduced from its previous floor price of 297 billion kyats, about $141 million at the official exchange rate, for the last failed auction in February last year.
Opponents of army rule have publicly discouraged the sale, seeing it as part of the persecution of Suu Kyi, who was arrested in February 2021 when the military seized power from her elected government. They say the property — where Suu Kyi hosted U.S. President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others — is a cultural heritage that must not be sold, demolished or redeveloped.
Many business people with the wherewithal to make multi-million dollar purchases are widely seen as cronies of the ruling military. However, buying the property would make them targets of forces opposed to army rule.
Several business figures and bureaucrats have been assassinated by opponents of military rule during Myanmar's civil war, which has pitted the army against resistance forces comprising pro-democracy fighters and ethnic minority guerrilla groups.
The property and its two-story colonial-style building was given decades ago by the government to Suu Kyi's mother, Khin Kyi, after her husband, independence hero Gen. Aung San, was assassinated in July 1947.
Suu Kyi, 79, remained there after her 2010 release from house arrest until moving in 2012 to the capital, Naypyitaw, to serve in parliament. She became the nation's leader after a 2015 general election. She is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence after a series of cases brought by the military. Her lawyers have not been allowed to meet with her since they last saw her since December 2022.
According to legal procedures, the court will continue to handle the auction process, but the details are not yet available.
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