SCMP-Aung San Suu Kyi must stay: ac

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Subject: SCMP-Aung San Suu Kyi must stay: activists 

Monday  March 29  1999
Burma

Aung San Suu Kyi must stay: activists

GREG TORODE in Bangkok
The political colleagues of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi could
be at great risk if she leaves Rangoon for the funeral of her husband,
Michael Aris, anti-junta activists claimed yesterday.

Surveillance and harassment of top National League for Democracy officials
had recently intensified and Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's presence in Burma was now
vital to their safety, Bangkok-based activists warned.

"There is no way she could leave Rangoon, especially with what has been
happening to her core leadership over the past few months," said Debbie
Stothard, co-ordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma.

"Michael Aris was sufficiently devoted to her and to the people of Burma
that he did not put any demands on her."

The Tibetan scholar died on Saturday - his 53rd birthday - in Oxford's
Churchill Hospital after prostate cancer spread to his spine and lungs.

The couple's two sons, Alexander and Kim, aged in their 20s, had been with
him in Oxford and are expected to travel to Rangoon this week for a private
ceremony on Friday. Activists in capitals across the region are planning
similar vigils this week but stress they will be honouring the family
struggle rather than scoring political points.

Burma's military Government yesterday sent condolences to Ms Aung San Suu
Kyi's villa in University Avenue where the Nobel laureate was mourning with
a few close aides.

The message said the junta - which had denied Aris a visa to visit as he was
dying - was "deeply saddened" and offered "all possible assistance" should
she want to travel to London for the funeral.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi angrily rejected an offer from the junta on Friday to
visit her husband safe in the knowledge they would let her return - an offer
which few diplomats or supporters believed.

Bangkok-based National League for Democracy supporters said it was clear the
junta had been monitoring deathbed calls from Aris to his wife and were well
aware of his exact plight.

"It all seems utterly cold and cynical," one said. "Their only concern is to
get her out of the country once and for all."

"I feel sorry for Daw [Aunt] Suu and I think she is a strong and brave
woman," said a retired businessman. "I want to convey my condolences

personally, but I am afraid my name will be marked down by the police."

The couple married in 1972 after a courtship at Oxford, where she was
studying. It was always to be a marriage trapped by history.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of late Burmese independence hero Aung
San, agreed to marriage with the proviso that she must return to Burma if
her people needed her.

She returned in 1988 to care for her ailing mother and swiftly got caught up
in the push for democracy - an effort that has seen her trapped in Rangoon
ever since. She last saw her husband in 1995 - the last time he was granted
a visa.