Burma called on to issue visa to op

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Subject: Burma called on to issue visa to opposition leader's dying husband


Burma called on to issue visa to opposition leader's dying husband
Thursday 18 March, 1999 (8:34pm AEDT) 
Source:ABC
  Australia has called on Burma's military regime to immediately issue a
visa on compassionate grounds to the dying husband of opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

British academic Michael Aris has prostate cancer and is not expected to
live long.

For three years Michael Aris has been denied a visa to travel to Burma. 

He is now in a British hospital. Sources in Rangoon say his condition is
inoperable. 

The cancer is believed to have spread to his spine and lungs. 

In recent months the state-run media has campaigned for Nobel laureate and
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be deported. 

Sources in Rangoon say if she left now, it is unlikely she would be allowed
to return. 

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says a direct appeal has
been made to the military regime to issue a visa immediately on

compassionate grounds. 

The spokesman for the regime is yet to comment.