DASSK attends funeral service

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REU1457 3 OVR 420 ( RWS ) H28144484
BC-BURMA-DEATH
Suu Kyi attends service for dead consul in Burma
    RANGOON, June 28 (Reuter) - Democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and at least one European diplomat on Friday attended a
Buddhist ceremony for an honorary consul who died in prison,
diplomats and organisers of the event said.
    Suu Kyi and the Danish ambassador to Thailand and Burma,
Joergen Reimers, were among about 30 people who attended the
service to honour James Leander (Leo) Nichols, who died while he
was in a Rangoon jail last Saturday.
    The service was a traditional Buddhist ceremony offering
food and alms to monks in Nichols's name, organisers said.
    A formal memorial service will be held at a Rangoon church
next weekend for Nichols, 65, a former honorary consul for
Norway and representative for Denmark, Finland and Switzerland.
    Reimers and European diplomats based in Bangkok and
Singapore were in Burma on Friday to investigate Nichols's
death.
    They have requested a formal explanation from the ruling
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) by Monday.
    If the SLORC does not meet the Monday deadline, the European
countries plan further action, one of the diplomats said,
without giving further details.
    Nichols, godfather and long-time friend of Suu Kyi, was
arrested by military authorities in April and jailed for three
years for operating telephones and fax machines at his home
without permission.
    But diplomats and opposition sources believe Nichols was
jailed because of his close friendship and financial assistance
to Suu Kyi and her opposition National League for Democracy.
    The diplomats, whose protests to the SLORC following
Nichols's arrest in April went unheeded, had originally planned
to be in Rangoon this weekend to attend the formal memorial.
    Even though it was postponed until next weekend, they
decided to go ahead with the visit in an effort to obtain more
information on Nichols's death, diplomatic sources said.
    "They went anyway because they had some meetings planned and
were still hoping to talk to people from the government before
the Monday deadline," a diplomat from one of the four countries
told Reuters.
    All four countries have written to the SLORC demanding a
full explanation of Nichols's death. Differing accounts said
Nichols died of a heart attack or a stroke.
    Diplomats in Bangkok said Nichols suffered from diabetes and
high blood pressure and they had been concerned about him in
prison.
    Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Friday
conditions in jail may have contributed to the death of Nichols,
who had relatives in Australia.
 REUTER
1221 280696 GMT