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SCMP_More than 1,000 attend ceremon



Subject: SCMP_More than 1,000 attend ceremony for Aung San Suu Kyi's husband 

Friday  April 2  1999
Burma

More than 1,000 attend ceremony for Aung San Suu Kyi's husband

AGENCIES
Updated at 2.34pm:
More than 1,000 well-wishers attended a Buddhist ceremony at Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's home on Friday to mark the seventh day
of mourning for her husband.

Fifty-three monks chanted prayers at Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside Rangoon
home for Michael Aris, a British academic who died on his 53rd birthday on
Saturday of prostate cancer.

The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is the military government's
strongest political opponent, made no public statement and refrained from
speaking with supporters, taking time only to shake hands with several
diplomats.

Ambassadors and other diplomats from the United States, European countries
and Japan attended. The only Southeast Asian nation that sent a diplomat was
the Philippines, which had urged Burma's military government to grant Aris a
visa.

Also present in Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's compound was Kyi Maung, formerly the
vice chairman of her political party, the National League for Democracy, who
had become estranged from the party leadership during the past two years.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, without the trademark flower in her hair, offered
saffron robes to the monks as part of the Buddhist merit-making tradition.

The gathering was probably the largest at Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's home since
her release from house arrest by the military four years ago, well-wishers
said.

''I am glad that I can come to give moral support and encouragement to her
at this time of sorrow,'' said one.

There were security checkpoints along the road leading to Ms Aung San Suu
Kyi's house but visitors were allowed through.

The ruling military-dominated State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) did
not grant Aris a visa despite a last-ditch attempt to see his wife before he
died.

Instead, it said Ms Aung San Suu Kyi could go to England, an offer she
refused for fear of not being allowed to return.

The military has increased pressure on Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD since
she demanded the government convene a people's parliament elected in 1990
polls which the military has refused to recognise.

There is a temporary political truce during mourning which can last from
seven to 100 days.