SCMP-Aung San Suu Kyi to miss for h

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Subject: SCMP-Aung San Suu Kyi to miss for husband's funeral - aide 

Monday  March 29  1999
Burma

Aung San Suu Kyi to miss for husband's funeral - aide

REUTERS
Updated at 1.23pm:
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not go to England for the funeral of
her late husband Michael Aris despite a government offer to allow the trip,
a confidant said on Monday.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was worried she may not be allowed to return to Burma,
and has already begun performing Buddhist rites for her late husband in
Rangoon, said Tin Oo, vice president of her National League for Democracy
(NLD) party.

''Even though she is a devout Buddhist, she is definitely not leaving
[Rangoon] to perform rites for her husband there. She is performing Buddhist
rites for him here. On the seventh day on Friday she will hold a major
ceremony in her house,'' he said from Rangoon.

Asked how Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was taking her husband's death, he said: ''She
is quite alright now but as a human being she is very much filled with
regret and very sad about the death of her husband.''

Aris, an Oxford academic, died on his 53rd birthday on Saturday of prostate
cancer.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi is unavailable for comment because her telephone is
inaccessible from abroad.

On Friday, the government said it would allow Ms Aung San Suu Kyi to return
tto Rangoon if she went to England to see her terminally ill husband
provided she did not politicise the visit. But Ms Aung San Suu Kyi had
rejected the offer, the government said.

Analysts noted she had rejected the offer because she feared the military
might not honour its pledge and might take action against her NLD party if
she was absent from the country.

On Sunday, the government again offered her assistance to go to England for
the funeral, but this time did not repeat its guarantee she could return
after the trip.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday paid a warm tribute to her late husband in a
statement to Rangoon diplomats.

''I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful husband who has always given me
the understanding I needed. Nothing can take that away from me,'' she said.

Mr Tin Oo said condolence books had been opened at her lakeside residence at
University Avenue and at the NLD party headquarters in the capital.


''Aung San Suu Kyi said she is very proud of her husband who has understood
her cause until the last minute. She is also proud of her sons who
sympathisewith her and understand her,'' he said.

Burma has refused to grant Aris a visa to visit Ms Aung San Suu Kyi over the
past three years.