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NLD members freed



All but 3 detained NLD members released, junta says+
     YANGON, June 27 Kyodo - All but three members of Myanmar's
National League for Democracy (NLD) have been released in the wake of
a crackdown on the pro-democracy group, a security official of the
ruling junta said Thursday.
     The junta arrested 262 NLD members in various parts of the
country, including 238 members who won seats in the national
parliament in the 1990 general elections, last month ahead of an NLD
convention in Yangon.
     The junta, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC), launched the detention campaign in mid-May in an apparent
attempt to prevent NLD members elected to the parliament from
gathering for the convention.
     The meeting took place May 26-28 at the home of NLD leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.  It was timed to coincide with the sixth anniversary of
the 1990 general elections, in which the NLD scored a landslide
victory by netting over 80 percent of the seats.
     NLD sources said that 193 members had been released from
detention by the SLORC, including 174 members who won seats in the
elections.
==Kyodo
KWS-16:17-27-06-96


 Officials Claim Detainees Freed; Consul's Death Downplayed 
   RANGOON, Burma (AP) _ Burma's military regime on Thursday
downplayed the controversial death of a former honorary consul,
omitting from an obituary published in state newspapers that he
died in prison.
   Government sources, meanwhile, claimed that all but three of 262
supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi rounded up last
month in efforts to prevent a key party congress had been freed.
But Suu Kyi's party said 69 were still believed detained.
   The death in prison of James Leander Nichols, 65, who served as
an honorary consul until 1978 for Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden
and Switzerland, has turned into the latest public relations fiasco
for the government.
   Denmark has urged the 15-nation European Union to take a stand
against the ruling junta at a meeting in Brussels next week. Other
nations, including the United States, have condemned the jailing
and death of a man known to suffer heart trouble and diabetes.
   Amnesty International has demanded an investigation, saying
Nichols was mistreated. The London-based human-rights group said
Nichols reportedly had been deprived of sleep for several days
before dying.
   ``You can prevent natural deaths,'' said Donna Guest, Amnesty's
chief researcher for Burma and Thailand. ``He was an elderly man
and wasn't well.''
   Officials at Insein Prison, notorious for deplorable conditions
and torture, said over the weekend that Nichols died of a stroke.
   The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council had kept an
official silence until Thursday, when state-run papers published a
standard obituary saying Nichols died Saturday and was buried
Sunday. No cause or place of death was given.
   The press in April reported Nichols' arrest for illegally
possessing two fax machines and a telephone switchboard. He
received a three-year prison term.
   Analysts believe he was really punished for his friendship with
Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent
promotion of democracy.
   While acknowledging Nichols' poor health, his family has blamed
the regime for his death and questioned the unusually quick autopsy
and burial.
   Joergen Reimers, Denmark's ambassador to Thailand, left Bangkok
Thursday to attend a weekend memorial service for Nichols. Other
diplomats are also expected to attend, though it was unknown
whether the regime would permit the service.
   Danish diplomatic sources said it was also unclear whether
government officials would meet the ambassadors.
   The junta arrested hundreds of Suu Kyi's supporters last month
to try to prevent a congress of her National League for Democracy,
the most important challenge she had directed at the regime since
her release from six years of house arrest last July.
   Suu Kyi held the congress anyway, and the attendance at weekend
rallies outside her home has risen as high as 10,000.
   The regime announced a month ago that the detainees _ mostly
members of the parliament elected in 1990 _ were being freed.
   A senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
claimed Thursday that only three remained in custody. They will be
charged with violating internal security laws, usually punished by
long stretches in Insein Prison.
   But Suu Kyi's party believes that 69 are still in custody. The
party also said that 14 freed supporters had recently quit the
party and parliament, some forced to do so while detained.
   The military has ruled Burma since 1962. Suu Kyi, daughter of
independence hero Aung San, emerged as leader of the pro-democracy
movement during protests crushed by the army in 1988.
   The newspaper New Light of Myanmar carried extracts Thursday of
a speech by a labor department official, Chit Tin, denouncing Suu
Kyi for reproaching the army, or Tatmadaw, her father founded.
   ``She always sees things done by the Tatmadaw with the negative
outlook and opposes whatever the Tatmadaw does,'' the speech said.
It accused her of ``collusion with traitors attempting to drag the
country into servitude again.''
   
270756 Jun GMT