Australian anger over Singapore hanging

Once a colonial outpost of Britain, Singapore has developed into one of the world's most prosperous places

- with glittering skyscrapers and a thriving port. The citizens enjoy one of the world's highest standards of living, but also a system of strict social controls and punishments for acts such as busking without a licence or not flushing a public lavatory. The country was referred to - less kindly -by the writer William Gibson as "Disneyland with the death penalty". Singapore argues that its use of capital punishment

- applied mostly for drugs trafficking offences - has stopped the growth of narcotics syndicates.

Time has run out for 25-year-old Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, who has been executed at Singapore's Changi prison. Nguyen was arrested carrying almost 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin at Singapore's Changi airport in late 2002. He said he was trying to smuggle the drugs from Cambodia to Australia to pay off the legal bills incurred by his twin brother, a one-time heroin addict. Nguyen was born in a refugee camp in Thailand in 1980, after his mother fled from Vietnam. The family eventually settled in Melbourne.

His death sentence sparked widespread criticism in Australia. The Canberra government repeatedly pleaded for clemency, as did lawyers, trade unions and church groups. But Singapore remained unmoved, and insisted that the hanging would go ahead as planned. Several last-ditch efforts to save him were suggested, including taking Singapore to the International Court of Justice or arranging a prisoner swap. But Simon Rice, a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, said that Singapore was not a signatory to international human rights covenants. The Australian government believed Nguyen should not face the gallows because he had no previous criminal convictions. It also argued that he could help investigations into drug syndicates if allowed to live.

But in a letter to his Australian counterpart, the Speaker of the Singapore Parliament, said there was no room for compromise. "Singapore has the right to retain the death penalty. We have an obligation to protect the lives of those who could be ruined by the drugs Nguyen was carrying. He knew what he was doing and the consequences of his actions. The Singaporean government has gone through careful consideration in order to safeguard the rule of law and people's interests. This is the correct procedure, and other people should not be allowed to interfer."

According to Amnesty International, about 420 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drugs offences. If these figures are correct, they would give the

prosperous city-state of 4.2 million people the highest execution rate in the world, relative to its population. At the weekend Australian Prime Minister John Howard made his fifth personal plea to the Singaporean leadership, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta. Mr Howard warned that Singapore should prepare for "lingering resentment" in Australia if the execution went ahead. He has, however, rejected calls for boycotts of Singaporean companies, as well as trade and military sanctions with one of Australia's closest Asian allies. "I believe John Howard has done as much as he could do. Listening to talk-back radio, there are some people who think that heroin smugglers deserve the death penalty, but I believe that the majority of Australians hold a different view" said Gerard Henderson, from the conservative think-tank The Sydney Institute.

Some church leaders have called on Australians to observe a minute's silence for Nguyen on Friday, but overall opinion remains mixed. "No-one has the right to take the life of someone else," said John Karousos, a 66-year-old retiree in Sydney. "It doesn't matter what he's done or his mistakes. The death penalty is unacceptable." But Gilly Parminter, a 40-year-old mother, was less sympathetic. "Personally I think if you go into a country you have to abide by their laws, and you have to live with the consequences."

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 954