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Uncle Leo.



				
			Death of Mr Leo Nichols
			***********************
	
	United States has called on Burma's military rulers to free all 
 the country's political prisoners.

	A State Department spokesman, Mr. Glyn Davies, made the call 
 yesterday while speaking to reporters about the death of Mr Leo Nichols, 
 a Greek-Burmese businessman who had been honorary consul-general in 
 Rangoon for Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

	Mr Davies said Washington had no way of verifying the official 
 Burmese account of the death of Mr Nichols, who had been a friend of the 
 opposition leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.

	Reports from Rangoon said Mr Nichols, 65, had suffered a cerebral 
 haemorrhage in his cell on 22 June, Mr Davies said.

	He had been a prisoner since April, when he was sentenced to 
 three years' jail for operating a telephone and fax from his home without 
 permission.

	In Perth (Australia) today, Mr Nichols' family joined the Swiss, 
 Norwegian and Danish governments and Amnesty International in calling for 
 an independent inquiry into his death.

	Mr Nichols' son, Mr Bill Nichols, a lecturer at WA's Curtin 
 University, said he had been told that his father died in Rangoon General 
 Hospital at 11 am on 22 June after being transferred from the Insein 
 prison hospital an hour earlier.

	The military authorities had conducted an autopsy, without 
 independent monitoring, which found a brain haemorrhage caused Mr 
 Nichols' death. They had also organised  a funeral, at Saw Bwa Gyi 
 Christian Cemetery on 23 June, forbidding family and friends to attend.

	Mr Nichols said that although he believed his father had been 
 jailed on fabricated charges, his association with Ms Suu Kyi was not 
 necessarily the reason for his persecution.

	He siad his father had also clashed with Burma's military junta, 
 the State Law and Order Restoration Council, over the council acquisition 
 of land that had been part of a dead relative's estate.

 [ Reuter, AAP, 27 June 1996].

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