Pubdate: Sun, 21 May 2000
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star
Contact:  One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6
Fax: (416) 869-4322
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
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Author: Dale Anne Freed, Staff Reporter

FREEDOM HOPE CHEERS VIET WOMAN

Grateful For Canada's Role

Tran Thi Cam was overjoyed by the news that she might finally be released
from a Vietnamese prison.

For the past four years, the 74-year-old woman has been serving a life
sentence for a drug-smuggling conviction in a detention camp, 30 kilometres
outside Hanoi. The Canadian landed immigrant is still unaware her daughter
was secretly executed by a firing squad in April.

"I appreciate the efforts of the Canadian government and the media," she
told her Canadian son-in-law, Tran Hieu, during his visit to the Thanh Xuan
prison yesterday.

In a conference call translated by his stepson, Trung Le, 26, of Brampton,
Tran said he told his mother-in-law of the efforts being made on her behalf.

"Why is the Canadian government so good to me? I am too old to be useful,
too old to count. I think I am the oldest person in this camp," she said.

But news of the possibility of freedom brought Tran Thi Cam only minutes of
happiness. Then her thoughts turned to her daughter.

"How is my daughter? Will they let her go free, too?" she asked her
son-in-law.

Tran Thi Cam and her daughter, Nguyen Thi Hiep, 43, a Canadian citizen, were
arrested at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport on April 25, 1996, carrying 5.4 kilos of
heroin. Toronto police think they may have been duped into carrying the
drugs.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Friday that Vietnam is willing
to consider freeing the older woman from prison and has indicated it would
release her daughter's remains to her family.
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