Over 1,000 pray for Aris at ceremon

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Subject: Over 1,000 pray for Aris at ceremony

Over 1,000 pray for Aris at ceremony
The Hindustan Times
New Delhi  Saturday  April 3, 1999

Yangon, April 2
MORE THAN 1,000 people gathered today at Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi's home for a religious ceremony honoring her husband, who died in
Britain having been refused a visa by Myanmar's military government to
visit her one last time.
Michael Aris, a professor of Tibetan studies at Oxford University, died
of cancer on his 53rd birthday last Saturday in a London hospital. He
had petitioned the government for a visa for months after learning he
was terminally ill, but his requests were denied.
A sombre Suu Kyi, without the wreaths of jasmine and other flowers that
usually adorn her hair, offered food and saffron robes to 53 Buddhist
monks who chanted sutras prayers.
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 ceremony.
The only South-East Asian nation that sent a diplomat was the
Philippines, which had urged Myanmar's military government to grant Suu
Kyi's husband Michael Aris a visa.
Also present in 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.
The government, which had claimed it would help Suu Kyi with the
ceremony, sent no representative.
"I didn't know the husband. I never saw him. I came to show my support
for her," said Daw Mya, a 60-year-old NLD member.
Those who came brought bouquests and wreaths of chrysanthemums and
other flowers. and signed condolence books.
In Bangkok, dozens of exiled Myanmar students held their own Buddhist
rites and chanted antigovernment slogans outside the Myanmar Embassy.
(AP)