EXECUTION FRAYS CANADA-VIETNAM RELATIONS

Canada has withdrawn its ambassador from Vietnam and will boycott ceremonies
tomorrow marking the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War to
protest Vietnam's execution of a Vietnamese-born Canadian woman for
drug trafficking.

Moments before she was blindfolded, gagged and shot by a firing squad
on Monday, Nguyen Thi Hiep, 43, refused to sign a confession that she
had smuggled heroin. During her trial in 1997, Mrs. Hiep said she had
been paid $100 to take Oriental art panels to Phu Van Hoa, a friend of
her husband in Toronto. Police officers at the Hanoi airport
discovered 11 pounds of heroin in the panels.

Mrs. Hiep's 75-year-old mother, Tran Thi Cam, who was traveling with
her and is still a Vietnamese citizen, is serving a life sentence.

Canadian police said that another Vietnamese-Canadian had fallen for a
similar ruse, leading to the arrest in Toronto of Mr. Hoa.