Prayers, protests as Suu Kyi husban

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Subject: Prayers, protests as Suu Kyi husband dies 


>From The Australian
29th March 1999

Prayers, protests as Suu Kyi husband dies
By PETER ALFORD South-East Asia correspondent in Bangkok

OPPONENTS of Burma's oppressive military Government are organising a
prayer service in Rangoon for Michael Aris, whose dying wish to visit
his wife, Aung San Suu Kyi, was denied by the regime. 

Dr Aris, who had been allowed to visit the Burmese democracy movement
leader just five times since 1988 and not at all since January 1996,
died of prostate cancer in a London hospital on Saturday, his 53rd
birthday. 

In keeping with Buddhist custom, a "seventh day" memorial service is
planned for Friday. The day is also expected to be marked around the
world by renewed protests against the regime's repression of Burmese
democracy. 

In the decade of their enforced separation, Dr Aris was a tireless
campaigner for Burmese democracy, travelling widely to speak on Ms Suu
Kyi's behalf. One of his last engagements before he became seriously
ill was to accept an honorary doctorate for his wife from the
University of Melbourne in September. 

\"(Dr Aris) sacrificed the companionship of his beloved wife for 10
years so that she could stand with her people in Burma to struggle for
human rights and democracy," US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
said at the weekend. 

Dr Albright said the State Peace and Development Council's refusal to
allow Dr Aris to visit his wife during the final months of his illness
reflected the regime's "callous disregard for the most basic
humanitarian principles". 

The British Tibetan studies expert had been trying for several months
to gain a Burmese visa and after his plight became public three weeks
ago, Rangoon said it was "reconsidering" the application. 

However, it claimed Burma's medical facilities were inadequate to care
for the dying Dr Aris and urged the "perfectly healthy" Ms Suu Kyi to
travel to London to visit Dr Aris. 

Ms Suu Kyi has not travelled outside Burma since arriving in 1988 to
tend her dying mother and assume leadership of the democracy movement,
which was bloodily crushed in August and September that year. Forcing

her into exile has been the regime's main anti-opposition strategy
since she was released from detention in 1995. 

On Friday, the State Peace and Development Council renewed its call
for Ms Suu Kyi to visit Dr Aris and added there would be "no
difficulty for Ms Suu Kyi returning to Myanmar". Pointing out the
military had reneged on many undertakings, she refused. 

Earlier last week a member of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy claimed the authorities, who have her communications under
constant surveillance, were disrupting her phone calls, even from Dr
Aris. 

"People around her say this is very cruel," the aide said. Weekly
phone conversations had been the couple's only direct contact since Dr
Aris last visited Burma. 

Announcing his death on Saturday, Ms Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel
Peace Price, said: "I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful husband
who has always given me the understanding I needed. Nothing can take
that away from me." 

The couple met while Ms Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma's assassinated
independence leader Aung San, was studying at Oxford. They married in
1972. In recent years their sons, Alexander, 25, and Kim, 20, have
also been refused visas to visit their mother. 

http://www.news.com.au/world/



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