AFP :DASSK mourns death of husband,

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Subject: AFP :DASSK mourns death of husband, thanks supporters

Aung San Suu Kyi mourns death of husband, thanks supporters
   
   YANGON, March 27 (AFP) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
mourned 
the death Saturday of her husband Michael Aris, who passed away in a British 
hospital.
   "On behalf of my sons, Alexander and Kim, as well as on my own behalf, I 
want to thank all those around the world who have supported my husband during 
his illness and have given me and my family love and sympathy," she said in a 
statement here.
   "I have been so fortunate to have such a wonderful husband, who had always 
given me the understanding I needed. Nothing can take that away from me," she 
said.
   Diplomatic sources in Yangon said Aris, who was suffering from cancer, 
passed away at about 0530 GMT on his 53rd birthday. In London, the Foreign 
Office confirmed his death.
   Myanmar authorities had been stalling on a visa application by Aris who 
wanted to pay a farewell visit to his wife in Yangon. They said they
preferred 
Aung San Suu Kyi travel to see him and had guaranteed Friday that they would 
allow her back into the country.
   Aides to Aung San Suu Kyi and junta sources said Saturday the Nobel peace 
laureate, who is locked in a bitter political struggle with Myanmar's
military 
government, had declined to leave the country.
   Military envoy Colonel Than Tun who visited Aung San Suu Kyi at her Yangon 
home on Friday to offer a "guarantee" she could return after the trip, said 
she had turned that offer down.
   He quoted her as saying "I am not going" before directing him to the door. 
"I took (it) as an indication for me to leave and I did just so," Than Tun 
told AFP.
   Opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) sources confirmed that 
account of the meeting.
   "She will not go," one party member said, adding that Aung San Suu Kyi had 
often remarked that her personal plight was insignificant compared to
hundreds 
of other NLD members -- many languishing in state jails.
   Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party won a landslide victory in elections in 1990, 
but the military has refused to hand over power and has tried to crush party 
support.
   Sources said the Nobel laureate had reminded anyone suggesting she go to 
Britain that many party members had died in prison without being able to see 
their families.

   Aung San Suu Kyi met British academic Aris in London in the early 1970s 
when she was studying at the London School for Oriental Studies and working 
for the United Nations.
   They were married in 1972, and had two sons.
   Aris made a number of visits to Myanmar since his wife, the daughter of 
independence hero Aung San, returned to the country in 1988 and emerged at
the 
head of the pro-democracy movement.
   He was last in Myanmar between December 18, 1995 and January 16, 1996 but 
several subsequent visa requests are believed to have been denied.


Thida (Thin Myat Thu)                 http://www.communique.no/dvb/
Web Editor                                    Tel: +47 22 41 41 43
Democratic Voice of Burma                     Fax: +47 22 41 39 29

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