Husband Visits Detained Nobelist in Myanmar

Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi saw her husband Saturday for the first time in more than two years.

Suu Kyi’s husband, Michael Aris, arrived at Yangon’s airport Saturday on a flight from Bangkok and was driven directly to the guarded residence where his wife has been under house arrest since July, 1989. Suu Kyi won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent resistance to Myanmar’s military government.

Aris, a British professor at Oxford University who has been living in the United States, was reportedly accompanied by the couple’s two teen-age sons.

Western reporters have not been allowed visas to cover his visit, and he avoided reporters waiting to talk to him at Bangkok’s airport.

Aris was last allowed to see his wife in December, 1989. The family has had no contact with her since mid-1990, and rumors that she is in poor health have circulated frequently.

The junta permitted the visit as part of its liberalization measures since Gen. Saw Maung retired April 23 as chief, reportedly because of illness. He was replaced by his deputy, army Gen. Than Shwe.

Suu Kyi, who turns 47 next month, is the outspoken leader of the National League for Democracy. She was detained on subversion charges when she galvanized the opposition after the military suppressed a nationwide pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

The junta has said it would release her only if she agrees to renounce politics and leave Myanmar.

The junta has been releasing political prisoners, including senior officials of Suu Kyi’s party. The most prominent detainee freed so far is 85-year-old former Prime Minister U Nu, who had been under house arrest for more than two years.