The Nation-Burma fears Aris 'health

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Subject: The Nation-Burma fears Aris 'health burden'

March 21, 1999
The Nations
Headlines
Burma fears Aris 'health burden'

THE Burmese military junta has failed to react positively to the growing
international calls for it to allow the dying British husband of opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit her in Burma, arguing the main obstacle
remains its limited medical facilities.

In a statement issued yesterday, Rangoon said the government remains very
sympathetic to the visa request by Michael Aris to visit his wife in Burma.

''Burmese medical authorities are concerned, however, that Mr Aris might not
be able to receive proper medical care in Burma and that he might put an
undue burden on the country's limited medical facilities.''

Earlier, Rangoon suggested it would be better if Suu Kyi went to Britain to
see her terminally-ill husband. However, Suu Kyi said she would be reluctant
to leave the country because the regime has in the past threatened to expel
her.

Aris is suffering from prostate cancer which has spread to his spine and
lungs, and is not expected to live long.

Burma's military junta has for the past three years denied Aris a visa to
visit his wife.

Aris, a professor at Oxford University, and Suu Kyi were married in 1972.
They lived in Bhutan before returning to Oxford before the birth of their
two sons.

Her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory
in elections in 1990, but the government has refused to hand over power and
has conducted a long campaign against the party.

In Bangkok, the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB) and
Union for Civil Liberty (UCL) jointly appealed to the Burmese military to
allow Aris to visit his wife.

In a separate statement, TACDB urged Asean to pressure Burma to respect the
basic right of its citizens and foreigners to travel in and out of Burma
freely with their safety guaranteed.

TACDB said these rights should also be applied to Suu Kyi whom, it said, has
shown her courage in confronting the sorrow caused by being separated from
her family in her peaceful fight for an improvement in human rights and
democracy in Burma.

It said the junta's ban on Aris' reunion with Suu Kyi is just one case among
many. Burmese citizens and foreigners have been refused the right to visit
Burma for political reasons.


TACDB president Laddawan Tantivitayapitak said in a press conference that
the junta should respect the rights of the family to decide on how they
should be reunited.

Laddawan also lashed out at the Thai government's position regarding the
matter.

''The Thai government does nothing and seems to support the junta's human
rights' violations,'' she said.

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said on Friday that the decision to allow
Aris to visit is Burma's own internal issue.

Human rights' organisations in Thailand will assemble in front of the
Burmese Embassy tomorrow to perform a candle-lit ceremony to show their
moral support for the Aris family.

In Sydney, Australia has joined the United States and the European Union in
trying to pressure the junta to allow Suu Kyi's husband into the country to
see his wife.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was ''hardly an unreasonable
proposition'' to allow Aris into the country on humanitarian grounds.

''All we can do realistically is demonstrate that the international
community thinks it is in the interest of humanity that Dr Aris should be
able to get to Rangoon to see his wife,'' Downer told ABC television late on
Friday.

The Nation, Agencies