Bkk Post-Manila sends only envoy fr

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Subject: Bkk Post-Manila sends only envoy from region

BURMA
Hundreds join Suu Kyi for husband's funeral rites
Manila sends only envoy from region

Bangkok Post, AP (April 3, 1999)


Thailand has sent a letter of condolence to Aung San Suu Kyi on the death of
her husband.

The letter, signed by Sukhumbhand Paribatra as acting foreign minister, was
believed to have been delivered to Ms Suu Kyi in Rangoon yesterday as she
hosted a Buddhist rite marking the seventh day after Michael Aris' death.

In March, the prime minister urged Than Shwe, his Burmese counterpart who
was visiting Bangkok, to grant Mr Aris a visa but was told it was an
internal affair.

In Rangoon, more than 1,000 people gathered at Ms Suu Kyi's home for funeral
rites for Mr Aris, who died on his 53rd birthday in England.

The professor of Tibetan studies at Oxford University, died on Saturday in a
London hospital. He had petitioned the junta for a visa for months after
learning he was terminally ill.

A sombre Ms Suu Kyi, without the flowers that usually adorn her hair,
offered food and saffron robes to 53 Buddhist monks.

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 greet 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 the junta to grant Mr Aris his dying wish.