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NEWS - Australian university awards



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.