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SUU KYI/DYING HUSBAND/SPDC



Suu Kyi Should Visit Dying Husband - Myanmar 
09:20 a.m. Mar 18, 1999 Eastern 
YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government said Thursday it
was reviewing a visa request from the dying British husband of opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi but said it would be more sensible for her to visit
him. 

``The government of Myanmar suggests that Ms. Suu Kyi, who is in perfect
health, travel to England to respond to her husband's dying wish to see her.
She has so far refused to go,'' it said. 

The military has long sought a way to get Suu Kyi, the biggest thorn in its
side for a decade, to leave the country. 

She has not left for the past 11 years, fearing she would not be allowed
back if she did. She appears unlikely to do so now, whatever the
circumstances. 

Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her courage in standing up
to military rule, has not left Myanmar since she returned to Yangon in early
1988 to nurse her dying mother. 


Sources close to Suu Kyi's family say her husband, Michael Aris, an Oxford
academic who has been denied a visa to Myanmar for the past three years, is
dying from prostate cancer that has spread to his spine and lungs. 

The government said in a statement it would provide Suu Kyi ''all possible
assistance'' to join her husband. It did not say if she would be allowed to
return if she did so. 

``Dr. Aris has requested a visa to visit Myanmar to see his wife, which the
government is currently reviewing,'' it said. 

``Dr. Aris' medical condition is extremely grave, however, and government
health authorities are surprised that he would request such a difficult trip
at this time. 

``To undertake a trip to Myanmar under such conditions... would appear to be
both irresponsible and inhumane, and the government is reluctant to
encourage or endorse such an action.'' 

The sources close to Suu Kyi's family said that even if Aris were granted a
visa he was not fit enough to travel. But he would do so if his condition
improved, despite fears he might not survive the journey. 

The two have not seen one another since mid-1995, shortly after she was
released from six years of house arrest. 

In London, the British Foreign Office said it supported Aris' application
for a visa to Myanmar, which it refers to by its former name, Burma. 

``We understand the Burmese authorities are still considering the
application and we hope that they will give a positive answer,'' a Foreign
Office spokesman said. ``There are compelling humanitarian grounds to issue
him a visa.'' 

A spokeswoman at St. Anthony's College in Oxford University, where Aris
teaches Tibetan studies, said he had recently spent a few days in a local
hospital. 

``He was diagnosed as having prostate cancer. His doctors have prescribed a
course of treatment he will take as an outpatient,'' she said. 

Tin Oo, vice chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, told
Reuters Wednesday that the opposition leader was very worried about her
husband but could not leave Myanmar. 

``The lady has been working hard for democracy, for the people and the
party, she is worried about him, but she will never leave the country
because she knows that if she does, the military regime will never allow her
to return.'' 

She is the daughter of Myanmar's foremost national hero Aung San, who won
independence from Britain in the 1940s. She has shown a steely determination
to promote democracy since emerging as a dissident leader during a national
uprising in 1988.