SYDNEY -- Singapore has hanged a convicted Australian drug runner and some Australians are demanding a boycott against this key trading partner. Rarely before have Australians been so upset over what they see as obsolete "Asian values."
The emotion-laden drug case is reviving fears that nine young Australians, held in Bali on drug-running charges, will be executed, leading to further deterioration in relations with Indonesia.
Public outpourings of grief here over the hanging in Singapore of a 25-year-old Australian citizen, Nguyen Tuong Van, reached an extraordinary crescendo. For weeks before the execution, people flocked to church services. Prayer candles burned in open spaces in cities and towns across the country and across huge lawns in front of Canberra's Parliament House. Prime Minister John Howard pleaded with his Singaporean counterpart for clemency. All in vain.