DENMARK takes its campaign for sanctions against Burma to European Union president Ireland this week, where it will propose a trade boycott, aid cuts and United Nations action, a Foreign Ministry official said yesterday.
Denmark is outraged at the death last month in a Rangoon jail of honorary consul Mr James Leander (Leo) Nichols. It put its proposals to an EU working group in Brussels on Tuesday, but according to Danish media reports made little headway.
Citing diplomatic sources in Brussels, Ritzau news agency said: "It was made clear that the majority of member states would rather fuse political than economic pressure to get the Burmese government to alter its position on human rights."
But a Danish official insisted talks on the matter were still in progress. It would not be possible to predict the outcome of these stalks until after the Danish Foreign Minister, Mr Niels Helveg Petersen, met his EU counterparts in Brussels on July 15th.
Mr Nichols (65), an unaccredited representative for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Switzerland, died in prison on June 22nd. Differing accounts say he died of a heart attack or a stroke.
Godfather to democracy campaigner Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, he was arrested in April and sentenced to three years in prison for operating home telephones and fax machines without permission. Diplomats and opposition sources believe he was jailed because of his close links with Ms Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD).
Human rights organisations have said Mr Nichols, a diabetic with a heart ailment, might have died as a result of sleep deprivation during interrogation in prison.
Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) took power in 1988, suppressing the democracy movement.