Nichols Update

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European diplomats enter Yangon for consul's death+
     BANGKOK, June 27 Kyodo - Diplomats from Finland, Denmark, Norway
and Switzerland will attend a Yangon memorial service for their
shared honorary consul who died in Insein Prison last week, a
Bangkok-based Finnish diplomat said Thursday.
     Marjatta Viitanen said she would travel to Yangon on Friday for
the weekend service for James Leander Nichols, who unofficially
represented the four countries.
     According to Viitanen, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland also have
sent embassy officials, and ambassadors from the four countries will
head for Yangon on Friday for the service.
     ''According to the information I have, a couple of my colleagues
are already there and a couple of ambassadors will travel tomorrow,''
she said.
     Nichols, 65, died Saturday and was buried at a Christian
cemetery Sunday, according to a brief obituary carried by a state-run
Myanmar newspaper Thursday.
     The obituary gave no details about the cause of his death.
     The four countries have written to Myanmar's ruling State Law
and Order and Restoration Council (SLORC) seeking an explanation of
the honorary consul's death.
     Nichols, an Anglo-Burmese, was arrested by Myanmar's military
authorities April 5 for using unauthorized facsimile machines and a
telephone exchange at his house.  He was sentenced to three years in
prison under a 1933 telegraphic law.
     However, diplomats and opposition activists believe the consul
was jailed because of his close friendship with and financial
assistance to Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her
party, the National League for Democracy.
     According to Myanmar's official diplomatic and consular list,
Nichols worked as honorary consul for Norway, Sweden and some other
European countries until 1978, when he was disqualified from
representing the countries after being sentenced to six months in
prison under the foreign exchange law.
     Nichols was survived by his wife and two children, who live in
Australia.
==Kyodo
KWS-21:19-27-06-96

VVV3719 5 III 00356 -----
AP- BC-Australia-Burma 
 BC-Australia-Burma 
 Australia: Harsh Jail Conditions May Have Caused Nichols' Death 
 With BC-Burma 
   CANBERRA, Australia (AP) _ Australia's foreign minister said
Friday that harsh conditions in Burma's notorious Insein Jail may
have contributed to the death of honorary European consul James
``Leo'' Nichols last week.
   Nichols' Australian-based family has called for an inquiry into
the businessman's death last Saturday, which followed his
imprisonment in April for operating a telephone and fax from his
home without permission.
   ``Conditions at Insein Jail are notoriously bad and Mr. Nichols
was an elderly man, not in the best of health,'' Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said.
   ``The conditions of his incarceration may well have contributed
to his death.
   ``I sympathize with Mr. Nichols' family and fully support their
desire to receive a full account of the circumstances surrounding
his death.``
   Amnesty International says Nichols reportedly had been deprived
of sleep for several days before dying.
   Nichols, 65, was the honorary consul for Norway and
representative for Denmark, Finland and Switzerland.
   He was a close supporter of Burmese democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, and Downer said his imprisonment was ``for clearly
political reasons.''
   Downer said the Australian Embassy in Rangoon would continue to
seek further information about his death, including seeking details
of the autopsy report.
   The death again focused attention on the brutal practices of the
ruling military State Law and Order Restoration Committee, Downer
said.
   ``The political nature of his arrest, the harshness of his
sentence and the conditions of his incarceration lead me to renew
calls for the Government of Burma to reform its human rights
practices,'' Downer said.
   ``I call on the government of Burma to immediately release all
those imprisoned and detained in Burma because of their political
beliefs.''
   Denmark has indicated it will urge its European partners to take
economic sanctions against Burma because of Nichols' death.
   
   (aap-pjs)
   
280503 Jun GMT


VVV3799 5 III 00605 -----
AP- BC-Burma, 1st Ld-Writethru 
 BC-Burma, 1st Ld-Writethru 
 Memorial Service for Honorary Consul in Burma Postponed 
 Eds: UPDATES with Australian comment in grafs 7-8; memorial service
to be held in Australia in graf 12 
   BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ A weekend memorial service for an
honorary consul who died in one of Burma's notorious prisons has
been postponed by Rangoon's military government, Danish diplomatic
sources said Friday.
   The service for James Leander Nichols, 65, who served as an
honorary consul until 1978 for Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and
Switzerland, was to have been held Sunday and attended by a number
of diplomats.
   But the sources said the government postponed the service,
possibly until next weekend. The reason was unclear.
   The jailing and prison death of a man known to be suffering from
heart trouble and diabetes has drawn sharp criticism from several
Western nations.
   Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen said in Copenhagen
that Denmark had put sanctions against Burma on the agenda for the
July 15 meeting of the European Union foreign ministers.
   Petersen said he would also discuss sanctions with the Clinton
administration July 11 during a visit to Washington.
   Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Friday that
prison conditions may have led to Nichols' death.
   ``Conditions at Insein Jail are notoriously bad and Mr. Nichols
was an elderly man not in the best of health,'' Downer said.
   The official Burmese 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 actually punished for his friendship
with Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and winner of the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize.
   Burma's military regime Thursday downplayed the death, omitting
from an obituary published in state newspapers the place and cause
of death. Officials at Insein Prison have said Nichols died last
Saturday of a stroke.
   A quick autopsy and burial have been questioned by family
members residing in Australia who blame the Rangoon government for
his death. The family plans a memorial service for Uncle Leo, as he
was known to Rangoon diplomats and friends, in the western
Australian city of Perth.
   Demanding an investigation, Amnesty International has said that
Nichols was mistreated. The London-based human-rights group said he
reportedly had been deprived of sleep for several days before
dying.
   Amnesty and other human rights groups, as well as Western
governments, have condemned Burma's ruling military for
imprisonment and torture of political prisoners and atrocities
against ethnic minorities.
   The junta arrested 262 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.
   Government sources Thursday claimed that all but three of the
262 rounded up had been freed. But Suu Kyi's party said that 69
were still believed detained.
   A senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the three remaining in custody would be charged with violating
internal security laws, usually punished by long stretches in
Insein Prison.
   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.
   
280926 Jun GMT



REU1094 3 OVR 290 ( RWS ) SYD64751
BC-AUSTRALIA-BURMA
Burma jail cited by Australia in consul's death
    CANBERRA, June 28 (Reuter) - Conditions in a Burmese jail
may have contributed to the death last week of honorary European
consul James Leander (Leo) Nichols, Australian Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said on Friday.
    "Conditions at Insein jail are notoriously bad and Mr
Nichols was an elderly man not in the best of health," Downer
said in a statement.
    "The conditions of his incarceration may well have
contributed to his death.
    "I sympathise with Mr Nichols's family and fully support
their desire to receive a full account of the circumstances
surrounding his death."
    Anglo-Burmese Nichols, 65, a businessman and honorary consul
for Norway and representative for Denmark, Finland and
Switzerland, died last Saturday after being sentenced to three
years jail in April for operating a telephone and fax from his
home without authorisation.
    Downer said his imprisonment was "for clearly political
reasons," a reference to Nichols's strong support of Burmese
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
    The Australian embassy in Rangoon would continue to seek
further information about his death, including details of the
autopsy report, he said.
    The death again focused attention on what he called the
brutal practices of the ruling military State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC), he said.
    "The political nature of his arrest, the harshness of his
sentence and the conditions of his incarceration lead me to
renew calls for the government of Burma to reform its human
rights practices," Downer said.
    "I call on the government of Burma to immediately release
all those imprisoned and detained in Burma because of their
political beliefs."
    Members of Nichols's family living in Australia have called
for an inquiry into his death.
 REUTER

REU1091 3 OVR 415 ( RWS ) H28102654
BC-BURMA-KANTOR
Kantor says economic sanctions on Burma may help
    By Deborah Charles
    BANGKOK, June 28 (Reuter) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Mickey
Kantor said on Friday that economic sanctions against Burma
could help pressure the country's military leaders into making
changes.
    "The administration is deeply concerned about the situation
in Burma," Kantor told reporters during a visit to Thailand.
    "We are deeply committed to...democratic governments," he
said. "This regime in Burma has cracked down on democratic
freedom of association and pluralism and on democratic
institutions, and we're concerned."
    Kantor said the U.S. government wants to make every possible
effort to bring about change in Burma.
    "There are times when economic restrictions done in an
appropriate fashion...can be very helpful," he said, citing the
economic sanctions used against Serbia, South Africa, Libya and
Iran.
    On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee
approved a foreign aid bill that requires economic restrictions
be imposed on Burma, an issue pressed by foreign operations
subcommittee chairman Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.
    Kantor said he had not seen the language of the bill and did
not want to comment on the exact wording, but that he favoured
taking necessary steps to help out in Burma.
    "I'm in favour of taking effective action with regard to the
actions of this regime," he said.
    With regard to a bill passed by Massachusetts this week
barring the U.S. state from dealing with companies that do
business in Burma, Kantor said that issue was best left to the
federal government.
    Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on
international companies not to invest in Burma until the
military government in Rangoon agrees to work toward democracy.
    Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council took
power in 1988 and suppressed a nationwide democracy movement.
    The United States and other nations have protested a renewed
crackdown on the pro-democracy movement that saw the detention
in May of more than 250 members of Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy ahead of a controversial party congress.
    In a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce, Kantor said
the United States and Thailand enjoyed strong relations, and
American businesses should come to take advantage of Thailand's
growing economy.
    "Thai-U.S. relations have never been stronger, and we want
to make them even stronger," Kantor told reporters after meeting
with Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa and other top
government officials.