Island of Death

[sea_wolf]

As pretty much every Australian will be aware on the 2nd of December Nguyen Tuong Van will be executed by Singapore for trafficking in heroin. This has stirred up considerable talk in Australia and is starting to appear as though it may have a long term effect on foreign relations

Comments

[jonvic80]

I won't comment much on the matter until I've looked into it more in depth. It's also important to look at things from the Singaporean point of view, that we are at the tip of the golden triangle, and that this island has been an important transshipment hub for drugs heading around the world in the past. It was unfortunate that Van was caught - the fact that Singapore is infamous for - even proud of - its harsh punishment of offenders should have been sufficient deterrence, but it wasn't in this case. Much as i'm against capital punishment, I do understand why it is meted out, and the strong message against traffickers and couriers which follows.