QUIET DIPLOMACY FAILED TO STOP EXECUTION: AMNESTY LEADER

The head of Amnesty International Canada says it's unclear whether more
vocal protests would have saved a Canadian seamstress from a Vietnamese
firing squad last week.

"Human rights activism always involves choices. Whether more public
advocacy would have saved her life, we don't know," Alex Neve said during a
news conference Saturday morning at the Augustana Lutheran Church.

"Things started to look promising for a while. In the end, they chose the
most brutal, secretive methods possible."

Canadian seamstress Nguyen Thi Hiep, 43, was convicted of drug smuggling
three years ago.

Both the Canadian government and Amnesty International worked behind the
scenes to have her death sentence put off. They were supposedly assured the
execution was on hold.

Then last week, despite new information that raised questions about Hiep's
guilt, she was blindfolded, gagged and shot to death by firing squad
outside a Vietnamese prison.

The Vietnamese foreign ministry justified the decision last week by saying
Hiep was "caught red-handed."

Canadian officials are outraged and are preparing sanctions against Vietnam.

Neve said he is confident the Canadian government did all they could. The
"quiet diplomacy" employed by the Canadian government and Amnesty may not
have been the best choice, but it also may have prolonged Hiep's life.

The Vietnamese government, as a legacy of the Vietnam war, takes offence at
foreign intervention. Neve said a loud, public campaign may have caused
them to execute her even sooner.

Hiep's mother was also convicted at the same time, and received a life
sentence. Vietnamese officials are freeing 12,000 prisoners from their
jails to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War,
and Neve hopes the Canadian woman will be among them.

Neve is on a Western Canadian tour of Amnesty chapters.

He spent the weekend with some members of the 90-member Saskatoon chapter.

He said Amnesty is working to ensure respect for human rights right now in
countries such as Sierra Leone, Sudan and Colombia.