I just had a wonderful celebration of my 40th birthday with friends
and comrades which was especially special (to hell with grammar!),
because my comrade and partner, Alison Thorne, was there to share the
occasion.
So the attached news report, about the death of Michael Aris, partner
of Aung San Suu Kyi, was particularly upsetting.
I do not concur with Aung San Suu Kyi's political view of the future
of Myanmar. I believe that only a socialist South Asia will begin to
redress the predations of European colonialism. Parliamentary
democracy can't fix it.
But I am devastated that she and her partner Michael could not say
goodbye because the bastards in power in Rangoon had not the grace to
permit Michael to die in what they claim is their country, in the
arms of his partner, nor to let her travel to England to be with him
when he died, and then return to uphold the struggle. Neither did the
so-called "friends of democracy" who are bombing Serbia think that it
was important enough to strongly lean on the Burmese dictatorship.
So Suu Kyi and Michael could not control their parting - they had no
farewells.
We have many disagreements in our search for liberation. But we MUST
NOT forget which side we're on, nor the humanity of all people who
fight for the betterment of their peoples, and so for all of us.
Our thoughts and solidarity must extend to Aung San Suu Kyi, who has
paid an extremely high price, one that none of us should bear, for
her commitment to the liberation of Myanmar from the General-
Druglords. And we must not forget Michael, who supported her in this
endeavour, nor their children, who are prohibited from visiting her
by the junta.
Solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi!
Vale Michael Aris!
**************************************************
Burma activist's husband dies
>From AP
28 March 1999
BANGKOK: Michael Aris, the husband of Burma opposition leader and Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, died yesterday in an Oxford hospital. He was
53.
Burma's military government had denied Aris, who was ill with
prostate cancer that had spread to his spine and lungs, a visa to
enter Burma and see his wife one last time before he died.
Aris, a scholar who specialized in Tibetan studies, died on his birthday.
Western governments and international human rights groups had urged
the Burma government to grant Aris a visa on humanitarian grounds,
but the military government refused and instead urged Suu Kyi to
leave the country and visit her husband in Britain.
Suu Kyi has refused to leave Burma because she does not believe the
military will allow her to return.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner released a brief statement through
diplomats after learning of her husband's death.
"On behalf of my sons, Alexander and Kim, as well as on my own
behalf, I want to thank all those around the world who have supported
my husband during his illness and have given me and my family love
and sympathy," the statement said.
Suu Kyi was with friends and diplomats when she learned of her
husband's death.
Suu Kyi and Aris were married in 1972. She met him while she was a
student at Oxford and agreed to wed the British academic on the
provision that he would understand that she must return to Burma, if
her people needed her.
Suu Kyi's father was Gen. Aung San, a national hero who won Burma's
independence from Britain before being assassinated in 1947.
In 1988, while Suu Kyi had returned to Burma to nurse her dying
mother, a nationwide uprising against military rule erupted. She
emerged as the movement's leader.
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