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SCMP-Activist mourns husband with B



Subject: SCMP-Activist mourns husband with Buddhist rites 

Saturday  April 3  1999
Burma

Activist mourns husband with Buddhist rites

Show of support: Burmese dissidents hold a protest outside their nation's
embassy in Bangkok yesterday in sympathy for the late Michael Aris, husband
of Aung San Suu Kyi. Associated Press photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon
More than 1,000 people gathered yesterday at Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi's home for a religious ceremony honouring her husband, who died in
Britain having been refused a visa by Burma's junta 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 Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, dressed in a white jacket and 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 and 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 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, former
vice-chairman of her political party, the National League for Democracy, who
has become estranged from the party leadership during the past two years.

The Government, which had claimed it would help with the ceremony, sent no
representative.

Those who came brought bouquets and wreaths of chrysanthemums and other
flowers, and signed condolence books.

Others who voiced sympathy and support for Ms Aung San Suu Kyi nonetheless
stayed away, not wanting to have their names taken down by police at
checkpoints around her compound or have their pictures taken by the
authorities.

The Government has put increasing pressure on Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and her
followers in recent months. It has said that more than 10,000 members of her
party have voluntarily resigned.


Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has said that many of the resignations were bogus or
coerced under threats from soldiers and that support for her party is still
strong.