Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 15, 1995                   TAG: 9502160020
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

IN THE WORLD

RANGOON, Burma - U Nu, who led Burma's first attempt at democracy before being ousted by a military coup, died Tuesday. He was 87.

No cause of death was given, but U Nu's family said he slipped into a coma and ``passed away peacefully'' in Rangoon.

Born in 1907, U Nu joined the nationalist drive against British colonialism at Rangoon University. He became Burma's first prime minister - and only civilian to hold the job - after the country gained independence in 1948.

He was one of the few world leaders who maintained open relations with the world's superpowers at the start of the Cold War, and was one of the original members of the nonaligned movement.

U Nu was overthrown in a 1962 coup led by Gen. Ne Win and detained for four years. He went into exile in 1969 and didn't return to Burma until 1980.

- Associated Press

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