Australians attack Singapore over hanging

SYDNEY, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Australian media Wednesday accused Singapore of hypocrisy for hanging insignificant drug mules while backing the heroin-producing nation of Myanmar.

The media attack accompanied rising anger in Australia over Singapore's insistence that 25-year-old Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian convicted of trafficking 400 grams of heroin, will hang Dec. 2, despite numerous pleas for clemency from the Australian government.

The crime, committed at the age of 22, was Nguyen's first offense. His story has elicited great sympathy in Australia.

The Australian accused Singapore of ignoring evidence that some of its business investment in Myanmar goes directly to drug lords. It also said Myanmar is the chief source of Australia's opium supply.

The Sydney Morning Post pointed out that in the 1990s the Singapore Government Investment Corp. contributed to the Myanmar Fund, controlled by opium drug lord Lo Hsing Han through his Asia World Company. Lo's son is married to a Singaporean and is based in Singapore.

The Australian's editor-at-large Paul Kelly warned that the execution would seriously damage Singapore's reputation in Australia. "The hanging of Nguyen will shock many Australians; it will be seen as a punishment out of proportion with the crime," he wrote in a Wednesday editorial.