Heat on Suu Kyi.

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	Supporters sent to labour camp as Burma turns up heat on Suu Kyi
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	Burma's military regime has intensified a crackdown on supporters 
	of the democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, refusing to release her jailed 
	godfather and sending supporters to a labour camp.

	Diplomats see the moves as part of a concerted new effort to 
	intimidate and silence the Nobel peace laureate, who has sharpened 
	her attacks on the regime.

	A group of senior European diplomats who flew to Rangoon last 
	week to plead for the release of a businessman, James Leander 
	Nichols - one of Ms Suu Kyi's closet family friends - were rebuffed 
	by the regime. Mr Nichols, 65, an Anglo-Burmese who was honorary 
	consul for several Scandinavain governments, has been held without 
	charge for a month in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison.

	Burma's Foreign Minister, Mr Ohn Gyaw, refused to meet the 
	visiting Swiss and Danish ambassadors to Bangkok and the Norwegian 
	and Finnish charges d'affaires.

	In a commentary in the official Burmese media at the weekend, the 
	regime accused Mr Nichols of giving financial backing to "the democracy 
	stunt actress" and of illegally installing phone and facsimile lines to 
	communicate with hostile foreign governments.
	
	Supports of Ms Suu Kyi say Mr Nichols had lent her a car but had 
	given no financial backing to her National League for Democracy.

	"His relationship with her is not political," a senior diplomat 
	said. "He's just a very close family friends. This is a way to hit her."

	A spokeman for Ms Suu Kyi confirmed that two comdians jailed for 
	seven years after satirising the military during an independence day 
	ceremony at her house in January had been transferred to a labour camp. 
	Thai media reports say that Par Par Lay and Lu Zaw are being forced to 
	work with iron bars shackled across their legs.

	Another prominent National League for Democracy member, Saw 
	Hlaing, setenced to five years' jail after a minor traffic accident in 
	March, is also reported to have been transferres to the Kyienn Kran Ka 
	labour camp.

	In a further development, the regime refused a visa for Ms Suu 
	Kyi's husband, British academic Dr Michael Aris, to visit her at Easter.

	Senior diplomats say the moves indicate a deterioration in 
	relations between the regime and Ms Suu Kyi, who was released last July 
	after six years under house arrest.

	The authorities are believed to have been angered by Ms Suu Kyi's 
	address to the United Nations Human Rights Commission two weeks ago, in 
	which she warned of worsening human rights violations and a breakdown 
	of the rule of law in Burma.

	[By MARK Baker, South-East Asia correspondent, Bangkok, Wednesday].

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