SINGAPORE EXECUTION A WARNING TO YOUNG, SAYS HOWARD

CANBERRA - The execution of an Australian drug smuggler in Singapore
should serve as a warning to other young Australians, Prime Minister
John Howard said today as church bells tolled and tears were shed for
Tuong Van Nguyen.

Nugyen was hanged shortly before dawn (11.00am NZDT) in Singapore for
smuggling 400 grams of heroin from Cambodia through the city-state's
Changi airport in 2002 in a case that has polarised and divided
Australians.

"I hope the strongest message that comes out of this ... is a message
to the young of Australia -- don't have anything to do with drugs,
don't use them, don't touch them, don't carry them, don't traffic in
them," Howard told Australian radio.

"Don't imagine for a moment that you can risk carrying drugs anywhere
is Asia without suffering the most severe consequences."

Howard said he felt sympathy for Nguyen's mother and had been
disappointed by Singapore's "clinical response" to Australia's request
that she be allowed to hug her son before his death. Singapore only
allowed Nguyen's mother to hold his hand.

At the time of Nguyen's death, Howard said he was reflecting on the
moment in his office at Parliament House in Canberra.

About 70 people, including Australian politicians, gathered outside
the Singapore High Commission in Canberra with a banner reading "Oh
Singapore, how could you?" while protesters clutching flowers rallied
in Sydney and Melbourne.

Australian television networks crossed live to Changi Prison in
Singapore throughout the morning and to an emotional church service in
Melbourne where a bell tolled once for each of Nguyen's 25 years.

Several polls have shown that Australians have been divided over the
execution of Nguyen, who said he smuggled the drugs to try and pay off
a loan-shark debt for his brother in Australia.

"This is really the worst side of humanity -- that cruel, negative
side that lurks there and that we keep down in the name of
civilisation," minority Greens leader Bob Brown said outside the
Singapore High Commission shortly before Nguyen's death.

"But it's come out today in the form of the Singaporean government and
their prime minister." Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock on
Thursday criticised the imposition of the death penalty and described
Nguyen's execution as an "unfortunate, barbaric act".

Singapore is one of Australia's strongest allies in Asia and Howard
has rejected calls for trade and military boycotts over the execution.
Australia made repeated calls for clemency for Nguyen.

Nobody has been hanged in Australia since 1967 and the death penalty
was abolished by states during the late 1960s and early 1970s.