With asking price of $142 million, no bidders for home of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A second attempt to auction the family home of Myanmar's imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi failed on Thursday after no bidders showed up, likely deterred by the court-ordered asking price of $142 million.

Suu Kyi spent 15 years in the home under house arrest, hosting visiting dignitaries including U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and many see it as a historical landmark in her nonviolent struggle against military rule, for which she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The minimum sale price of 300 billion kyats was a reduction from the initial attempt in March to get 315 billion kyats, about $150 million at official rates.

With black-market exchange rates, which better reflect the real value of the kyat — which has been plummeting — the March asking price was about $90 million and the current price was closer to $46 million — still a lot to pay in a country in the middle of a civil war where nearly half the people are living below the national poverty line of 76 U.S. cents per day, according to the United Nations.

Proceeds from the sale of the 1.9-acre (0.78-hectare) lakeside property in Yangon were to be split between Suu Kyi and her estranged older brother. Suu Kyi’s lawyers had challenged the auction order.

The attempted auction was held in front of the closed gates of the property, which has served as an unofficial party headquarters and a political shrine for the country’s pro-democracy movement.

It lasted less than one minute before a district court official announced there had been no bidders and she ended the proceedings.

According to legal procedures, the court will continue to handle the auction process, but the details are not yet known.

The two-story colonial-style building in Yangon, the country's largest city, 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.

Her elected government was ousted in an army takeover in February 2021, and Suu Kyi is now serving a combined 27-year sentence after being convicted of a string of criminal charges.

Her supporters and independent analysts say the charges were concocted to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power.

The court-ordered auction followed a bitter decades-long legal dispute between Suu Kyi and her brother, Aung San Oo, who has sought an equal division of the property.

Suu Kyi’s lawyers have not been allowed to meet with her since they last saw her in person in December 2022.

FILE - Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walk through the garden after meetings at Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon, Myanmar on Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool, File)

Journalists gather outside the residence of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the home is auctioned in Yangon, Myanmar Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Journalists gather outside the residence of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the home is auctioned in Yangon, Myanmar Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Unidentified legal officials from Kamayut district court walk into an entrance of the residence of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the home is auctioned in Yangon, Myanmar Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Journalists gather outside the residence of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the home is auctioned in Yangon, Myanmar Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Journalists gather outside the residence of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the home is auctioned in Yangon, Myanmar Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

An unidentified legal official from Kamayut district court speaks outside the residence of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the home is auctioned in Yangon, MyanmarThursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Anti-war protesters clashed with police on Wednesday outside a military arms convention in the Australian city of Melbourne.

Protesters hurled bottles, rocks and horse manure, a police statement said. They also sprayed officers with liquid irritants, some of which were identified as acid, police said.

Police retaliated with pepper spray, flash distraction devices and rubber bullets, which are designed to inflict pain without penetrating the skin.

At least 24 officers required medical treatment. Police arrested 39 protesters for offenses such as assault, arson and blocking roadways.

“Victoria Police is appalled at the behavior of some of the protesters,” the statement said, referring to the Victoria state force.

Around 1,800 police officers have been deployed to a Melbourne convention center where the Land Forces International Land Defense Exposition is taking place through Friday.

Some of the convention attendees also were assaulted, police said.

Protesters also threw rocks, horse manure and tomatoes at police horses and officers with shields and wearing riot gear. A police officer on horseback struck a protester with a riding crop and a line of police were seen forcing protesters away from the convention center.

Police said some protesters targeted the horses, but no animal sustained serious injury.

Roads have been closed and traffic was disrupted by the protests, organized by Students for Palestine and Disrupt Wars groups. The organizers hoped up to 25,000 protesters would turn out.

Police estimated 1,200 protesters had surrounded the convention center by noon.

Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said it was the state police force's biggest planned deployment since Melbourne hosted the World Economic Forum in 2000 and backed his officers' use of force. He said the protesters had planned for conflict.

"They come her to protest ... anti-war so presumably anti-violence," Patton told reporters. “The only way I can describe them is a bunch of hypocrites.”

Students for Palestine national co-convenor Jasmine Duff blamed police for the protest violence.

“They used serious weapons on peace activists that should be banned for use on demonstrators, including pepper spray, which is classified as a chemical weapon,” Duff said in a statement.

“They hit us with batons, including hitting one man so hard he had to go to hospital and they shot us with rubber bullets,” she added.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on protesters to show respect for police.

“People have a right to protest peacefully, but you don’t say you’re opposed to defense equipment by throwing things at police,” Albanese told Seven Network television. “They’ve got a job to do and our police officers should be respected at all times."

The organizer of the biennial convention, AMDA Foundation, said it would not comment on protester activity.

The gathering brings together arms industry figures from Australia, the United States, Asia and Europe. In 2022, the convention was held in the city of Brisbane where protests were more subdued.

Victoria Police man barricades outside a military arms convention in downtown Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)

Victoria Police clash with anti-war protesters outside a military arms convention in downtown Melbourne, Australia,Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)

Victoria Police clash with anti-war protesters outside a military arms convention in downtown Melbourne, Australia,Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (Joel Carret/AAP Image via AP)