Reuter: SLORC Said Nichols Knocked

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Subject: Reuter: SLORC Said Nichols Knocked Off by All the Diseases

SLORC Said Nichols Knocked Off by All the Diseases

    RANGOON, July 15 (Reuter) - A commentary in an official Burmese
newspaper said on Monday an honorary consul for several European nations
who died in jail last month was an unimportant crook who met his due fate.
     James Leander (Leo) Nichols, an unaccredited representative for
Norway, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland, died on June 22. Differing
accounts say he died of a heart attack or stroke.
     Nichols, godfather and close friend of democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, was arrested in April and in May was sentenced to three years in jail
for operating home telephones and fax machines without permission.
     Calling Nichols a "bad-hat," the commentary in the New Light of
Myanmar newspaper said condemnation and demands for details of Nichols
death by many Western nations were exaggerated.
     "I cannot find a reason why there is such exaggeration and
fault-finding over the death of an unimportant crook," it said.
     "The bad-hat must have died because of destiny, as a retribution," it
said. "He knew he had a disease. He took medicines...Yet he was reckless
with food and lazy and sought luxury so it was not strange that he met his
fate thus."
     The article repeated an earlier statement that Nichols was not
mistreated, and that he had masseurs and people fanning him.
     The article gave a detailed list of pathology results from an autopsy
conducted on Nichols.
     Among other things it said Nichols had a hardening of the arteries,
cardiovascular disease, scarred heart muscles, contracted kidneys due to
high blood pressure and congestion of the spleen, brain and adrenal gland.
     The author of the commentary, Byatti, said he obtained the results in
an effort to reply to the Danish government which complained it had not
received a full report on the cause of Nichols' death.
     The commentary warned governments not to keep harping on Nichols' death.
     "If they wish the bad-hat to ascend to a good abode in his next
existence, they should not have much ado about his death," it said.
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