Pubdate: Tue,  7 Mar 2000
Source: Express, Express on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: 2000 The Express
Contact:  +44-171-922-7794
Website: http://www.express.co.uk/
Forum: http://bbs.lineone.net/community/forums.html
Author: Andrew Drummond In Bangkok
Editor's Note: Burma is officially called Myanmar.

ARISTOCRAT DIES IN HEROIN RIDDLE

Mystery surrounds the death from a suspected heroin overdose of the
younger brother of a British viscount.

The Hon Hugh Fitzroy Newdegate, 39, was found in his room at Rangoon's
five-star Traders hotel at lunchtime on Friday, it was revealed
yesterday. A small packet containing 0.02 grams of heroin was found in
a drawer at his bedside, according to the Burmese state newspaper Kyemon.

"He had not been seen since noon on Thursday," said a Foreign Office
spokesman. "When found by a hotel doctor, he was pronounced dead. The
Burmese police are conducting an investigation. We have been in touch
with the Newdegate family."

Doctors were quoted by the newspaper as saying he had died of a drugs
overdose. But the Foreign Office said it was awaiting the results of a
post mortem examination. The tragedy comes as a double blow for
Newdegate's family, still mourning his father Lord Daventry, who died
just three weeks ago aged 78. Eton-educated Newdegate, who was single,
is the younger brother of James, who became the Fourth Viscount of
Daventry after the death of their father. He said yesterday that he
was "utterly devastated".

A statement issued by his family described the death as accidental.
"This has come as an awful shock to everyone who knew him," it said.
"He belonged to a very close and loving family who must now try to
come to terms with this tragedy."

A woman answering the telephone at Arbury Hall, the ancestral seat of
Viscount Daventry in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said: "We are expecting
to get more information later in the week."

Mr Newdegate was in Burma on business, working for Aon Group Ltd, a
London-based subsidiary of the international insurance firm Aon Corp
"We are all devastated by this distressing news. We have been advised
of nothing to suggest that this is anything other than a tragic
accident," said a statement from the firm.

"Hugh will be greatly missed by all his many friends and colleagues
throughout the world."

Mr Newdegate arrived in Rangoon on Thursday. Next day staff checked
his room after he failed to answer an international call.The 500-room
Traders Hotel has already been at the centre of a heroin controversy.
The Free Burma Coalition, a Washington-based organisation opposed to
Burma's ruling military junta, has claimed that it was built with the
help of money from a principal suspect in the notorious Golden
Triangle drugs trade.
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