OTTAWA FREEZES TIES WITH HANOI OVER EXECUTION

OTTAWA -- Canada has slapped new sanctions on, and cut off all
ministerial-level contacts with, Vietnam following last week's execution of
a Canadian woman, accused of drug trafficking in Hanoi.

"We deplore this absolutely unacceptable conduct of the government of
Vietnam," Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told the House of Commons on
Monday.

"We have taken all the steps possible to make sure that Vietnam understands
that such action cannot be acceptable and that the Canadian government
absolutely condemns it."

Ottawa has already protested against last Tuesday's execution of Nguyen Thi
Hiep, a Canadian citizen born in Vietnam, who was shot by a firing squad in
Hanoi.

She was the first holder of a Western passport to be put to death in Vietnam
for drug smuggling and her death was seen by observers as a signal of an
intensifying crackdown in the war on drugs.

In a statement outlining the sanctions, Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy
said: "The Vietnamese government's public pronouncements about their reasons
for proceeding with the execution have not addressed the concerns we raised
with them.

"All ministerial level contact between Canada and Vietnam is suspended as of
May 1," he said. "Canada will not support Vietnamese candidates for
positions in international organisations," the statement said.

It added that all discussions of Canadian aid programmes to Vietnam were
also suspended.

Hiep, 44, left Vietnam in 1981. She and her mother, Tran Thi Cam, 73, were
arrested at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport in April 1996, for
allegedly trying to smuggle 5 kg of heroin to Hongkong.

She was in Vietnam on a tourist visa, while her mother held a Vietnamese
passport. Hiep was condemned to death and her mother to life imprisonment.

In his statement, Mr Axworthy asked that the mother be freed on humanitarian
grounds.

Before the execution, the Canadian authorities suggested the two women had
been manipulated by a ring of drug traffickers.

Canada sent the Vietnamese authorities information gathered by Toronto
police to support that argument.

It also asked that the Toronto police be allowed to visit Hanoi to provide
more details of their investigation.

"Proceeding to execution without providing for this opportunity for further
discussion was unconscionable," said Mr Raymond Chan, Canada's Secretary of
State for Asia and the Pacific.

But, last Friday, Vietnam protested against Canada's "intervention" in the
case.

Police Vice-Minister Le The Tiem said: "Canada should not intervene in this
matter.

"The offence committed by Hiep is serious not only for Vietnam, but also for
the whole of mankind."

He added: "Anyone found in possession of 5 kg of opium or 100 g of heroin is
liable to face the death penalty in Vietnam."

Vietnam toughened its anti-narcotics laws in 1997 to include the new limits.

Numerous executions have taken place over the past few years, but they are
rarely publicised.

About a dozen foreign drug traffickers have been sentenced to death over the
past five years, mostly Laotians but also nationals of China, Taiwan and
Singapore.