Danish campaign gains momentum

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Denmark condemns Burmese "dictators"
    By Steve Weizman
    COPENHAGEN, June 29 (Reuter) - Denmark intensified its
campaign against Burma's military government on Saturday,
calling it a dictatorship which violated human rights and
inviting pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to Copenhagen.
    State radio said that an invitation to Suu Kyi to deliver an
address to Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen's Social
Democratic Party's congress in September was due to be delivered
to the Nobel peace laureate in Rangoon on Saturday.
    "We want to send a signal to the dictator-regime that we are
following her every move and that we condemn their violations of
human rights," Rasmussen told the Danish daily Politiken.
    Since the death in a Rangoon jail a week ago of Suu Kyi's
godfather James Leander (Leo) Nichols, who represented Denmark
and three other European countries, Denmark has led calls for
international sanctions against the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).
    But inviting Suu Kyi as a guest of the Social Democrats
rather than the government or the state has raised fears that it
could be seen as an attempt by Rasmussen to make domestic
political capital out of the issue and might even undermine the
credibility of the Danish diplomatic effort.
    "If the prime minister wants to express concern and support
on behalf of Denmark it would have been better to invite her on
behalf of the government or the nation," Conservative opposition
leader Hans Engell told Reuters.
    "This invitation to speak at his party congress risks making
it appear as if he is making populist political use of a very
serious issue," Engell said.
    Politiken said that Suu Kyi had turned down overseas
invitations in the past for fear that she would not be allowed
back into Burma afterward and might well decline the Danish
offer anyway.
    Denmark's Social Democrat-led coalition government has been
the butt of growing domestic criticism for its muted response to
Nichols' arrest in April and subsequent three-year jail sentence
for operating a telephone and fax from his home without
authorisation.
    Diplomats and the Burmese opposition believe that the ailing
65-year-old Anglo-Burmese was jailed because of his support for
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy.
    Denmark's government says that it acted with restraint, like
Finland, Norway and Switzerland who also used Nichols as an
unacreditted representative, after receiving messages saying
that Nichols himself believed that high-profile international
pressure might hurt him.
    The Danish daily Berlingske Tidende on Saturday quoted his
son William Nichols as saying that the messages came from his
father's lawyer and housekeeper, who may themselves have been
under pressure from the Burmese military.
    "I cannot imagine that my father did not want help when he
was sitting in prison. That is just not like him," William
Nichols, a university lecturer in Perth, Australia, told
Berlingske.
    "I cannot personally give an opinion on the lawyer's
credibility,but it is very likely that he was under pressure
from the Burmese authorities," he said.
 REUTER
1212 290696 GMT