RSL boss slams silk

WAR veterans have slammed a prominent Melbourne silk after he said the execution of heroin smuggler Van Tuong Nguyen was "worse" than the imprisonment of Australian prisoners in Singapore during World War II.

After Nguyen's execution on Friday, Robert Richter, QC, invoked Australia's PoWs held captive by the Japanese at Changi in Singapore.

Addressing a Melbourne rally, he said Changi was a place "that resonates in the Australian psyche" and "unspeakable horrors" were committed there "but what happened at Changi this morning is more shameful and worse," he said.

But RSL national president Major-General Bill Crews yesterday dismissed it as a "ridiculous comparison".

"He has got it totally out of perspective," he said. "This person committed a crime and was found guilty.

"We might have particular views about the execution process and the mandatory sentencing approach of the Singaporean Government.

"But to say that this was worse than what happened to our prisoners in Changi during the Second World War is an atrocious remark."

Maj-Gen Crews - who already had argued against holding a minute's silence to mark Nguyen's execution - said Mr Richter should apologise to Diggers.

"All veterans - and particularly those who suffered in Changi - would be absolutely offended by such a comparison," he said.

But Mr Richter said his comments were taken out of context - and were not intended to insult veterans.

He said he was comparing not the suffering of diggers with that endured by Nguyen, but the intent behind the atrocities.

"What was done there ... in the heat of war - no one says that it is legitimate and everyone condemns those as war crimes," he said.

"(The execution) was not done in the heat of war or passion or enmity - this was done in cold blood in the name of law. It was in that respect worse."

Nguyen, 25, was hanged at dawn on Friday at Singapore's Changi Prison.

During World War II, Changi was Japan's main PoW camps.

Almost 15,000 Australians captured at the fall of Singapore were imprisoned there, forced to do heavy labouring works around Singapore.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sunday, 04 December 2005
Source: Sunday Territorian
Author: Paul Dyer
Website: http://www.ntnews.com.au
Email: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au