Call to reduce defence ties with Singapore to halt execution
Melbourne: Australia's Network Against Prohibition wants the Australian government to reduce defence ties with Singapore in an effort to save the life of Vietnamese-Australian Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, who faces exeuction in the city-state's Changi jail within ten days after his plea for clemency was rejected.
"We should immediately break all ties with the Singapore military and stop training Singapore pilots, says the association's spokesman, Gary Meyerhoff.
"Our navy should give Singapore a wide berth until further notice.
"Surely the life of this young Australian is more important than a few joint military training exercises."
Van, who was arrested in Singapore while trying to smuggle heroin from Viet Nam to Australia, says he was carrying the narcotic to pay off gambling debts for his twin brother.
He is to be hanged despite his cooperation with the Singapore and Australian police.
Amnesty International says Singapore has executed more than 420 people have been executed there since 1991 - the highest per capita execution rate in the world.
Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Mon, 24 Oct 2005
Source: The Southeast Asian Times
Website: http://www.southeastasiantimes.com/
Email: southeastasiantimes@bigpond.com
1 Comments:
In Changi jail upon death row
Breathe live corpses, unjust woe.
No darker space condemned to die,
Where Time, still barely etching by,
Weeps words amid the bleak sorrow.
Compassion's Dead, gone long ago.
They tried, went wrong; felt hatred grow,
Loved and are loved, they should not die,
In Changi jail.
A wake for them, who cannot show,
To you their failing hearts let go.
And on their eve when death is nigh,
Nary lose faith with those who die.
For know, down deep, injustice flows
In Changi jail.
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