VIETNAM FREES MOTHER OF EXECUTED CANADIAN

Hanoi - Vietnam has freed the elderly mother of a Vietnamese-Canadian woman it executed earlier this year for heroin trafficking, part of a mass amnesty for 10,693 convicts, 61 of them foreigners.

Tran Thi Cam, 74, of Brampton, Ont., was among 263 people freed Friday from Thanh Xuan, a prison set in rice fields west of Hanoi, under the amnesty to mark the communist state's 55th independence day that falls on Saturday.

She had spent more than four years in jail for after being arrested at Hanoi airport in April 1996 and accused of trying to smuggle 5.45 kilograms of heroin on to a flight to Hong Kong.

Her 43-year-old daughter, Nguyen Thi Hiep of Toronto, was convicted with her. Ms. Nguyen was executed by firing squad in April, drawing strong protests from Canada, which downgraded ties. Ms. Tran was only spared because of her age.

"I feel dizzy," the pale bespectacled woman said as she was embraced and handed flowers by weeping relatives, including her husband, other daughters and son-in-law, at the prison gates.

"The family is very happy today," Ms. Nguyen's husband Tran Trung Hieu told reporters.

The Canadian embassy said Ms. Tran would return to her family's home near Toronto. It said three more Canadians were among the foreigners covered by the amnesty. Others come from United States, China, Australia, France, Pakistan, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

Ms. Tran's release should help patch up relations with Canada, which strongly hinted this week it would normalize ties if she were freed.

Ottawa had expressed outrage at the execution, saying Hanoi reneged on promises to look at evidence it said cast doubt on Ms. Nguyen's conviction. It suspended ministerial contacts and aid talks in retaliation.

On Aug. 19, authorities quietly transferred Ms. Nguyen's remains to her relatives. They were reburied at a cemetery on the outskirts of Hanoi that day, the Vietnam news agency reported.

The amnesty, was the second of its kind this year after the release of 12,264 prisoners, including 29 foreigners, in April.

It was unclear if any of the Vietnamese nationals being freed this time included dissidents cited by international rights groups and Western governments.

Human rights groups say April's amnesty included a handful of dissidents and one Hanoi-based diplomat cited unconfirmed reports that the number could have been as high as 17.

Rights groups estimate Vietnam still holds at least dozens of dissidents in jail and greatly restricts movement of dozens it has previously freed.

They say it is difficult to determine exact numbers because of Vietnam's climate of secrecy and that it denies holding political or religious prisoners, only common criminals.