CANADA SUSPENDS VIETNAM TIES OVER EXECUTION

OTTAWA - An infuriated Canada said Monday that it was freezing all
ministerial ties with Vietnam to protest Hanoi's reluctance to explain why
it executed a Canadian woman on drug smuggling charges.

Ottawa also said it was suspending talks on furthering Canada's development
assistance to Vietnam, which amounts to $11 million a year.

Foreign Minster Lloyd Axworthy said Vietnam had not responded to requests to
explain why it had refused to review evidence that Canada said cast doubts
on the conviction of Nguyen Thi Hiep.

"Effective today, therefore, all ministerial-level contact between Canada
and Vietnam is suspended ... . In addition, Canada will not support
Vietnamese candidates for positions in international organizations,"
Axworthy said in a statement.

International Co-operation Minister Maria Minna said Ottawa was especially
unhappy at Vietnam's decision - just days after Nguyen's execution last week
- - to grant amnesty to 12,264 prisoners to mark the 25th anniversary of the
end of the Vietnam War.

"I cannot explain how they could do such a thing. This is why we are so
angry, this is why we're taking the actions we're taking," she said.

Vietnam's deputy foreign minister has said authorities had no choice but to
execute Nguyen, who was caught red-handed with heroin at Hanoi airport in
April 1996. She was convicted in March 1997.

But Canada says Hanoi went back on a promise to look at evidence gathered by
Toronto police, which seemed to suggest Nguyen had been duped into carrying
the drugs.