Vietnam executes Canadian trafficker
HANOI - Vietnam has demonstrated its
determination to wage a tough fight against drug
trafficking with the unprecedented execution of a
Canadian woman convicted of drug trafficking.
Nguyen Thi Hiep, convicted of trying to smuggle five
kilograms of heroin out of the country four years ago,
was executed by firing squad here at dawn on
Tuesday.
She was the first holder of a Western passport to be
put to death in Vietnam and her execution was seen
by observers here as a signal of an intensifying
crackdown in the war on drugs.
"The Vietnamese authorities wanted to make her an
example to respond to the frequent criticisms from the
West that they were lax in fighting drug trafficking,"
said a Western diplomat who requested anonymity.
The Canadian government for its part summoned the
Vietnamese ambassador to Canada to express its
"deep disappointment" over the execution and
suggested Nguyen Thi Hiep may have been innocent.
Nguyen Thi Hiep, who was in her early 40s, was
born in Vietnam but became a naturalised Canadian
citizen after moving to Canada in 1992.
She was arrested in April 1996 while in Vietnam on a
tourist visa, along with her mother, Tran Thi Cam, 73,
who still held a Vietnamese passport.
Nguyen Thi Hiep was condemned to death and her
mother to life imprisonment after they were arrested
at Noi Bai international airport trying to smuggle the
heroin to Hongkong.
Vietnam toughened its anti-narcotics laws in 1997,
enacting the death penalty for anyone possessing
more than 100 g of heroin or more than five kilograms
of opium.
Numerous executions have taken place over the past
few years but they are rarely publicised.
Since March, however, Vietnam has intensified its
anti-drug efforts, partly in reaction to an annual US
report which named the country as a producer and
transit point for narcotics.
About a dozen foreign drug traffickers have been
sentenced to death in Vietnam over the past five
years, mostly Laotians but also nationals of China,
Taiwan and Singapore.
Vietnam remains a major transit point, however, for
heroin from the drug-producing "Golden Triangle"
region of Burma, Laos and Thailand.
AFP - April 28, 2000.
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