REMOVE INJUSTICES

So Vietnamese Ambassador Trinh Quang Thanh ("Execution ignites diplomatic
crisis," April 28) hopes to find understanding among Canadians as to why
Vietnam had to execute Nyugen Thi Hiep, a Canadian citizen, for allegedly
having in her possession five kilograms of heroin. Not with me, he won't.

Even without the new evidence that was sent to Vietnam and ignored by
Vietnamese authorities, indicating the heroin may have been planted, the
death penalty in such a case is repugnant and barbaric. It cannot be undone
retroactive if the person killed by the state is proven to have been innocent.

To add insult to injury, only four days after this execution, Vietnam had
an amnesty that released 12,000 prisoners, including murderers and drug
traffickers, as a goodwill gesture. That is more than just bad timing; it
is the height of hypocrisy and makes a mockery of Canada's supposed concern
for the rule of the law.

Does Vietnam's ambassador have any idea what such actions, and his attempts
to justify them, do to Vietnam's image in the world? Surely even if he
can't understand most Canadians' moral outrage at these two acts, he can at
least see that they are unlikely to help Vietnam's desire for more foreign
trade, especially tourism.

The most obvious way to get rid of criminal activity associated with drugs
is to make them legal everywhere.

Then, as is the case with alcohol although we still have problems of abuse,
much of the resources that go to building bigger prisons and training ever
more heavily armed police could go to removing the social and economic
injustices that make it worthwhile, for people who have nothing, to risk
their own and others' lives in smuggling drugs.

Christopher Levenson, Ottawa