Myanmar junta offers condolences to Suu Kyi

Myanmar junta offers condolences to Suu Kyi

YANGON (Agencies): Myanmar's ruling junta on Sunday offered its "sincere condolences" to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi over the death of her husband.

The junta said it would allow Aung San Suu Kyi to return to England to attend the funeral of Michael Aris.

"The government of Myanmar is deeply saddened to hear of Mr Michael Aris's demise and sends its sincere condolences and sympathy to the bereaved family in this time of grief," it said in a statement.

The junta, which strictly controls Aung San Suu Kyi's movements, had effectively refused Aris a visa to Myanmar to allow him to visit his wife to say goodbye before he died.

The academic died in a British hospital on Saturday of cancer. The junta said on Sunday it would help with funeral rites in Yangon and "stands ready in providing Ms Suu Kyi with all possible assistance if she desires to travel to England to attend the funeral rites and family affairs at this time of bereavement."

Authorities in Yangon said they were reluctant to allow Aris to visit Myanmar in the condition he was in and said it would be more "humane" if Aung San Suu Kyi visited him in England.

But sources close to the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader said she doubted she would be allowed to return despite assurances from the junta that she could come back.

Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a sweeping victory in 1990 elections but has never been allowed to form a government.

She remains the junta's biggest political threat and is kept isolated from the outside world while party members are arrested and intimidated.

Her marriage to Aris was a frequent topic of ridicule in the state press, which called her a puppet of foreign interests.

Friends and supporters were seen arriving at Aung San Suu Kyi's Yangon home and at NLD party headquarters on Sunday to sign condolence books.

NLD sources told AFP that preparations were under way to arrange Buddhist funeral rites in Yangon later this week, involving more than 50 monks in a ceremony at Aung San Suu Kyi's home.

"Dr Aris not only showed great understanding towards Daw (honorific) Aung San Suu Kyi's endeavors to achieve democracy and human rights ... but with love and compassion wholeheartedly supported and assisted her cause by making tremendous personal sacrifices," an NLD statement said.

It said all "freedom-loving people who desire democracy" shared a sense of grief over Aris's death.

Aung San Suu Kyi married Aris in 1972. Their two sons live in England.

Sympathy for the opposition leader following the death of her husband in Britain was muted among some in Myanmar on Sunday due to fear of the Southeast Asian nation's military government.

"I feel sorry for Daw (Aunt) Suu and I think she is a strong and brave woman," said Myint Maung, a retired businessman. "I want to convey my condolences personally, but I am afraid my name will be marked down by the police."

The streets of Myanmar's capital, Yangon, were calm and quiet with many people apparently unaware that Suu Kyi's husband, Michael Aris, has died.

State-run media made no mention of Aris's death. Myint Maung, like others who knew of it, learned of the news from BBC radio or other foreign radio broadcasts.

Aris, a professor of Tibetan Studies at Oxford, succumbed to prostate cancer at London's Churchill Hospital on Saturday, his 53rd birthday.

The couple has two sons, Alexander and Kim, both in their 20s and living in Britain.

Aris had petitioned Myanmar's military government repeatedly for a visa after he learned he was dying in a desperate attempt to see his wife one last time.

The death of Michael Aris has thrown the human rights record of Myanmar's junta back into the international spotlight.

"The authorities' callous disregard of the most basic humanitarian principles is emblematic of the continuing repression" in Myanmar, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on hearing the news late Saturday.

The United States, Britain, France and Australia were among the countries which put pressure on Yangon to grant the visa.