VN News (Mar 30, 1997)

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

   Canadian to appeal Vietnamese death sentence for heroin trafficking 
   Thailand's Chavalit Calls For Peaceful Vietnam, China Deal 

                                      
   Sunday - Mar 30, 1997 [29]... Back to headlines 
   
   _[INLINE] Canadian to appeal Vietnamese death sentence for heroin
   trafficking_
   
   HANOI (AFP) - A Vietnamese Canadian sentenced to death for heroin
   trafficking has filed an appeal in Hanoi, a Canadian embassy source
   said Sunday.
   
   Nguyen Thi Hiep, who was condemned to death and fined 90,000 dollars
   on March 17 after a two day trial, has filed an official appeal with
   the Hanoi Supreme People's Court, the source said.
   
   Hiep, a 40-year-old naturalized Canadian who fled Vietnam in 1981, was
   arrested with her 70-year-old mother, Vietnamese national Tran Thi
   Cam, at Hanoi's international airport on April 25, 1996.
   
   Her mother, who received a sentence of life imprisonment and a 45,000
   dollar fine, was also appealing her sentence, the source said.
   
   The two were detained after police found 5.45 kilograms (12 pounds) of
   heroin hidden inside five lacquer paintings they were carrying as they
   tried to board a flight to Hong Kong.
   
   Possession or transporting more than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of
   heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam.
   
   Hiep, who was visiting Vietnam on a one-month visa last April, listed
   her address as Montreal, Quebec, on her passport.
   
   She is the first Canadian to receive the death sentence in Vietnam,
   the embassy said.
   
   The source said since Hiep's arrest the embassy been granted access to
   Hiep once, last July.
   
   "Our official reaction is that we have a request in for consular
   access as soon as possible. This is an outstanding request," the
   source added.
   
   However, he said the embassy would not take any official action until
   after Hiep's appeal is heard, which may not occur for several months.
   
   "Our line is that anything the Canadian government will do must await
   the final sentence," he said.
   
   Hiep was the fourth foreigner to receive the death sentence for
   drug-related crimes in Vietnam, although only one has been executed.
   
   In 1993, Wong Chi-shing, a Hong Kong resident and holder of a British
   National Overseas passport, was executed in Ho Chi Minh City after he
   was caught smuggling five kilograms (11.2 pounds) of heroin into the
   country.
   
   On Friday, two other British passport holders from Hong Kong received
   the death sentence after a one day trial.
   
   Sun Chi-kin, 34, and Chan Chun-hung Sam My, 24, were arrested in March
   last year after 18.1 kilograms (39.82 pounds) of heroin was found
   concealed in two suitcases as they arrived at Ho Chi Minh City airport
   from Bangkok.
   
   Executions in Vietnam are by firing squad, with five rifles aimed at
   the body followed by a sixth shot to the head.
                    ___________________________________
                                      
   Sunday - Mar 30, 1997 [30]... Back to headlines 
   
   _[INLINE] Thailand's Chavalit Calls For Peaceful Vietnam, China Deal_
   
   Hanoi (DJ) -- Thai Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh Sunday called
   for the peaceful resolution of a dispute between Vietnam and China
   over oil exploration in waters claimed by both nations.
   
   But Chavalit declined to endorse the territorial claims of Vietnam, a
   fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
   
   'Right or wrong, it isn't for Thailand to judge,' Chavalit told a
   press conference.
   
   Of China, he said, 'They are our friend.'
   
   A Chinese oil drilling rig, Kantan-03, moved into waters about midway
   between the central Vietnamese coast and China's Hainan island in
   early March.
   
   Both nations claim sovereignty over the waters in which the rig is
   located, and China has thus far rebuffed Vietnamese calls for the
   withdrawal of the rig.
   
   Last Thursday, a Chinese government spokesman said his nation would be
   willing to hold talks with Vietnam about the dispute.
   
   Chavalit, who is in Vietnam for a two-day visit, called for the use of
   the 1992 ASEAN declaration on sea rights as the basis for settling the
   problem.
   
   'We all want to see the settlement of this dispute peacefully,'
   Chavalit said.
   
   Separately, a Thai foreign ministry official told reporters his nation
   and Vietnam haven't had any breakthrough toward resolving overlapping
   maritime claims in the Gulf of Thailand.
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