Austrakian University Awards Aung S

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Australian university awards Aung San Suu Kyi honourary degree
Sat 05 Sep 98 - 04:09 GMT
MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept 5 (AFP) - The husband of Myanmar democracy activist
Aung
San Suu Kyi on Saturday accepted an honorary degree on her behalf and said he
believed the
country's military rulers were gradually moving towards dialogue.
Michael Aris accepted the Doctor of Laws award from the University of
Melbourne, saying the
military in Myanmar (Burma) would not have allowed his wife back into the
country if she had
visited Australia.
"How pleased they would have been if she left and how sad for her supporters,"
he told a
graduation ceremony.
"Although it is nearly three years since I was last allowed by Burma's
military rulers to see her,
and many months since I could speak to her by telephone, last year she was
able to ask me to
represent her here today."
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate and leader of the National League for
Democracy, was under
house arrest for six years before her release in 1995.
Aris, an Oxford University fellow, said the conferring of the degree was
recognition of his wife's
attempt to establish the rule of law in Myanmar.
"Every day of the week in Burma's official media, Suu Kyi is vilified,
slandered, taunted,
ridiculed and insulted -- in the cowardly way adopted by soldiers who have
lost their sense of
honour and dignity, she has no right of reply."
He said there had been signs over the past few weeks that the military leaders
were echoing his
wife's call for political dialogue, with the generals claiming to be taking
"confidence-building
measures".
"Is it a ruse to deflect international criticism, the outcome of both genuine
outrage and regional
concern that Burma will add to Asia's economic woes?" he asked.
"I believe it reflects a dawning realisation among many officers that Suu has
been right all along,
that unless all sides sit down to work towards shared goals by a process of
negotiation and
comprise, a national disaster is looming."
Aris said his wife and her supporters had given up "all the comfort and
security of family life, all
the pleasures of an easy life" in the cause of peace. But history had shown
that it could not be
attained without sacrifices.
"Which of its powers will the army surrender in the interests of peace and the
common good . .
 . will they have the courage to do so? I believe they will but the timing of
this is still obscure to
me. May it please be soon, for the sake of all," he said.