Yesterday I send a mail to Arnold Schwarzenegger regarding
Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
Here is my mail addressed to governor@governor.ca.gov;
Hi Arnold,
I just had this ordeal here in Singapore with Tuong Van Nguyen and his
execution, was there and talked to the media.
No one deserves to die, and a execution is nothing else than just another
murder, a killing.
Because of politics people die, you want to execute them as well?
Don't allow it to happen!!!
Consider not only, try to bring changes, death sentence
is murder as well, you can't say here an eye for an eye, its still murder!!!!
With Kind Regards, Dieter Wittmer
Today I got the reply;
Thank you for your correspondence regarding Stanley
Williams.
There is a court order currently in place that calls for Mr. Williams
to be executed by the State of California on December 13, 2005, and
Mr. Williams has, through his attorneys, expressed his desire for the
Governor to grant him clemency in this matter.
Capital punishment is an issue about which many people hold strong
and impassioned views, and Governor Schwarzenegger appreciates you taking
the time to express yours with regard to Mr. Williams. Your correspondence
will be given due consideration during the clemency process.
Thank you again for writing.
Sincerely,
ANDREA LYNN HOCH
Legal Affairs Secretary
All you people out there who are willing to
support the fight against capital punishment, no matter what, just a
Email once a week, it surely will make a difference and it is also not
too much to ask for.
Please!!!
Thank you all who are willing to do something!!!
As you probaly have seen in the news, the CIA is doing dirty business.
Not just now, this stuff is going on for a long time already.
Ohh that black budget they all have. Quite an amount
of money that is, a lot of things can be done with that.
We are the human beings who vote,
we are the people who can bring changes.
Please do something, somewhere
we have to start to get to an end.
Friday, 02 December
2005 4:33 AM
Not much time left if you know
that your life will end at 6 AM
Tuong
Van Nguyen will be hanged
Amazing what can be done and get away with it, get away with
murder!!!
7:53 AM
Tuong
Van Nguyen may he rest in peace
I was looking at the prison and
it came into my mind how close I was to death and how I escaped death.
Even though I didn't know Tuong
Van Nguyen I feel grief and sad that in what
is called a civilized country such cruel murders happen.
There is no excuse whatsoever to kill someone and the death sentence
is just another killing of a human being. Abolish the death sentence!!!
I met Dino there, a Singaporean from who a relative was
executed about 15 years ago and he told me about the pain he still can
feel and how sorry he feels for the family of Tuong Van Nguyen.
It is pain.
A reporter from the German TV station RTL told me that this is his first
execution and he feels really strange about it.
Believe me, it gets into you and I feel strange as well.
It’s like his soul is going through me to departure to a better
place and living a message to me that I’m on the right way with
what I’m doing here.
Tuong Van Nguyen, peace my brother.
Channel News
Asia was not around and that is a real shame, since he was a Asian human
and this had happen here in Asia, but then, in Singapore and nearly
every Friday there is a execution in Singapore.
December 1,
2005
Tuong Van Nguyen
Only a miracle can stop the execution now.
Less than a day, counting the hours and a life of a human being will
be taken, a murder, a killing will happen in the name of the law, in
the name of freedom and in the name of a save environment.
It’s hard to imagine how his mum and brother do feel and will
feel for the rest of their life.
By taking Tuong Van Nguyen’s life more people will be punished
than just him and there is surely no justification for that.
Sure, Singapore is a clean country and everyone has to respect the
laws, but the capital punishment is simply too much, and this not only
in Singapore, Thailand, the USA and all other nations who still have
the capital punishment need to dearly reconsider the death penalty or
at least to whom they give a death sentence. But then, how can you define
to whom to give a death sentence and to whom not?
Thailand has a death sentence for drugs, still though, a lot of drugs
are in Thailand being used, sold and exported. The death sentence doesn’t
stop people from doing drugs; it’s the money and the feeling which
the drugs give you that make ‘em do it. A death sentence doesn’t
stop people, especially when they are in situations where they can get
out of something, of their inner self, or out of money problems.
Many States in the USA still have the capital punishment, does it stop
anyone over there taking or dealing with the drugs?
No, not really. Drug user statistics are not going down in the USA.
By the way, there was a time when those statistics went down, but that
was before 1973, before Nixon needed voters, before he declared the
war on drugs, before the DEA was founded. Before that, when the heroin
epidemic was brought to USA during the Vietnam War and they saw how
many GI’s were hooked, they started to help them with various
programs like rehabilitation and prevention. But Nixon needed votes
and his advisers advised him how to get votes.
Nowadays the DEA is a vast expanding economy, please have a look, I
took this from the official
website of the DEA:
DEA Staffing & Budget
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a component of the Department
of Justice, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S.
Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and
others. It is headed by an Administrator who is appointed by the President
and confirmed by the Senate
DEA Staffing and Appropriations
FY 1972-2005 (All Sources)
YEAR
Total
Special
Support
Budget
Employees
Agents
Staff
($ in Millions)
1972
2,775
1,470
1,305
65.2
1973
2,898
1,470
1,428
74.9
1974
4,075
2,231
1,844
116.2
1975
4,286
2,135
2,151
140.9
1976
4,337
2,141
2,196
161.1
1977
4,439
2,141
2,298
172.8
1978
4,440
2,054
2,386
192.3
1979
4,288
1,984
2,304
200.4
1980
4,149
1,941
2,208
206.7
1981
4,167
1,964
2,203
219.5
1982
4,013
1,896
2,117
244.1
1983
4,013
1,896
2,117
283.9
1984
4,093
1,963
2,130
326.6
1985
4,936
2,234
2,702
362.4
1986
4,925
2,440
2,485
393.5
1987
5,710
2,879
2,831
773.6
1988
5,740
2,899
2,841
522.9
1989
5,926
2,969
2,957
597.9
1990
6,274
3,191
3,083
653.5
1991
7,096
3,615
3,481
875
1992
7,264
3,696
3,568
910
1993
7,266
3,518
3,748
921
1994
7,049
3,611
3,438
970
1995
7,389
3,889
3,500
1,001.00
1996
7,369
3,708
3,661
1,050.00
1997
7,872
3,969
3,903
1,238.00
1998
8,452
4,214
4,238
1,384.00
1999
9,046
4,527
4,519
1,477.00
2000
9,141
4,566
4,575
1,586.60
2001
9,209
4,601
4,608
1,697.40
2002
9,388
4,625
4,763
1,799.50
2003
9,725
4,841
4,884
1,891.90
2004
10,564
5,194
5,370
2,040
2005**
10,894
5,296
5,598
2,141
*Enacted amounts may include rescissions if applicable.
**FY 2005 Enacted Level
I don’t want to get deeper into this right now;
you will be able to find something about it in my biography.
The issue is the death sentence and once more someone will be killed
and there is no other word for it ‘cos it simply is a legal killing.
Tuong Van Nguyen will die tomorrow morning at 6am Singapore time and
what can be done that Tuong Van Nguyen is the last person who will be
legally killed for drugs?
Singapore is a small country and because it is this small and the folks
living here love their country, it is easy to keep the streets clean
of drugs. It is not the death sentence which keeps folks away, but more
so because it is difficult to find a market here in Singapore.
Drugs are here in this country and there are also local people who
take them, the difference here to other countries is that the government
….. and the people take the drugs behind close doors.
Can’t get deeper into this!!!!
One thing is for sure though; it is not the death sentence which keeps
a huge flow of drugs away from Singapore!!!
It is real and anyone could be encountering a close person
being executes for a real stupid believe or thought
November 30,
2005
Tuong Van Nguyenis
hanging in there and on Friday he will probably hang on just a rope
until death.
I just been there talking to some reporters and they also believe
that his chances to survive are pretty slim. Like in most parts of the
world it is also in Singapore the case that the USA is the only one
who is able to stop the execution at this stage. But the USA surely
don’t care, they have their own capital punishment in many states.
The execution is set for Friday the 2nd December 6am.
I’ve been reading some views
on Tuong Van Nguyen at the Herald Sun and it is somehow amazing
to read the views of some, like
“they deal with criminals very well. Perhaps we could learn from
them. Are we too arrogant to try?”
or
"Why has this Nyugen guy made headlines? It is an open and shut
case people. He knew the law, took them on and lost. So get over it!!
He will hang for his crimes. To even consider a one minute silence is
absurd and a slap in the face of our diggers. Amnesty has alot to answer.
How about amnesty worry more about the one million children a year dying
of malaria. Who is the hypocrites!"
We have to save em all, is what I think, no one has the
right to take someone else life. A life that will be saved will in most
cases save other lifes as well. Make your tree and count of how fast
a million lifes can be saved.
Peace and love, politicians and money, folks and there
beliefs, a lot could be done, just need to do it right.
You know what my answer is to views like that, watch a
movie and get real and for those kind of views the movie Traffic might
pass on a bit of the reality.
In cases of incarceration and death sentences, it is not only the criminal
who is punished for what he or she has done, it is also a great punishment
to the ones who love those individuals like family and friends, most
of all the family and it is severe. Drugs are a social problem and as
long as a huge profit can be made on them it will be a continuing problem
in our society.
At this stage I would like to send a message also to the folks who do
criminal activities, plan to do them and don’t even know yet that
they will do them; there is a lot you need to be aware of, things you
will never think about, but you will feel when you are drown in to that
ocean. And this message goes also out for the folks who do believe that
they have a clean soul as well as their friends and family members.
Those things can happen to anyone, your dad, your mum, your son or daughter,
your husband or wife, your friend or lover, it doesn’t matter
on which social level you are or who you are. Just a split second, at
the wrong place at the wrong time, the wrong decision, there is sometimes
even no need to be guilty, and you are drowning in.
To the ones who add their views, please think before you
add a view or comment to something you don’t really understand
and try to get the views of all sites.
No matter in what religion you do belief, no one has the
right to take another life.
Bush might say an eye for an eye, he is quite religious,
is he right or wrong?
If you are fanatic then you might be right, if you arenot
fanatic and you simply belief in your religion then you are wrong and
this is my view.
But hui, lets understand the definition of fanatic; noun A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning
enthusiasm, as for a cause.
(taken from THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
fourth edition)
Please don’t do stupid things and learn from the
people who did those stupid things.
Everyone deserves a second chance and so does Tuong Van
Nguyen, but where is his second chance, in heaven?
Ui, look what I got here,
some kind of a sign of how much power they have over death and life
A spokesman for the governor told the
Reuters news agency that he had received roughly 1,500 phone calls,
letters and e-mails from across the world about the case, almost all
of them urging clemency.
November 29,
2005
For Tuong Van Nguyen on
death row at Changi Prison Singapore
And as he sits on death row awaiting execution on Friday, Nguyen has
no doubt reflected on the night the "beep" of the metal detector
signalled the collapse of his world.
It was just on three years ago when the 22-year-old Melbourne salesman
approached Gate C22 at Singapore's Changi Airport with much trepidation.
He was carrying two bags of high-grade heroin -- one strapped to his
body and the other stuffed into a backpack -- and was rushing to catch
the flight to Melbourne.
He was in transit from Cambodia, where he'd collected almost 400g of
the white powder to smuggle into Australia for a Sydney syndicate.
Nguyen would later tell Singaporean police he had become a drug mule
to pay off his twin brother's debts.
Airport security officers in Cambodia had failed to detect the two
plastic packets of heroin he'd taped to his body.
Once on the Silkair flight MI622, Nguyen started to have breathing
problems, so he went to the toilet and removed the packet taped to his
stomach, then stuffed it in his hand luggage. He kept the other taped
to his lower back.
After arriving in Singapore, Nguyen had to connect with Qantas QF 10
for his flight home.
But he fell asleep in the Business Lounge, and when he awoke realised
he had only 10 minutes to make the plane.
In his police statement, Nguyen said his anxiety levels were further
raised by fears that his movements were being monitored by the drug
syndicate.
"At the metal detector, I placed my backpack and my business bag
on to the X-ray machine," he stated.
"Then I walked through the metal detector and as I was crossing
it beeped.
"At that point I knew I was going to be caught.
"A policewoman told me to stand to one side so as not to obstruct
traffic.
"She then used a metal detector wand to search me by going up
and down my body. The wand did not beep.
"She then touched my back and when she reached my lower back,
she must have discovered the packet of heroin strapped there."
Nguyen, who has no criminal record, was immediately taken to a room
where he was ordered to place his hands against the wall.
"I told him, 'No need, I will get it for you'," he stated.
"I lifted up my shirt and pulled out the strapped packet on my
lower back and gave it to the officer.
"He asked me what that was and I replied to him, 'It's heroin,
sir'.
"I also told him that there was more and went and retrieved the
pack of heroin which I had hidden inside my backpack."
At this stage, Nguyen became distressed and began to cry, at the same
time hitting his head against the wall. He then sat on the floor, holding
his head in his hands.
Shortly before midnight, December 12, he was taken to Singapore's Central
Narcotic's Bureau and later charged on serious drug offences, with an
automatic penalty of death by hanging.
It had been his first overseas trip.
Just before midnight last night all was quiet at Gate C22. About 5km
away, the lights were also out at Changi Prison.
Nguyen's execution date falls on the third anniversary of the day he
flew out of Australia.
---
"Why is
there no mercy?"
---
BBC News
Singapore executioner 'sacked'
Singapore's chief executioner says he has been sacked after his identity
was exposed by the media.
Darshan Singh's name and photo appeared in the Australian press days
before he was due to execute a Vietnamese-born Australian man for drugs
smuggling.
Australia has repeatedly appealed for clemency on behalf of Nguyen
Tuong Van, who is scheduled to be hanged on 2 December, but to no avail.
Prime Minister John Howard has rejected calls for a national minute's
silence.
Singapore has some of the harshest anti-drug laws in the world and
Mr Singh, 74, is reported to have conducted more than 850 hangings in
his 50-year career.
"They called me a few days ago and said I don't have to hang Nguyen
and that I don't have to work anymore," Mr Singh told Reuters news
agency.
"I think [the prison authorities] must be mad after seeing my
pictures in the newspapers."
Australia's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said a new hangman was expected
to be flown in to carry out Nguyen's execution.
The 25-year-old was convicted of trafficking 400 grams (14 ounces)
of heroin in 2002 after he was arrested while in transit at Singapore's
Changi airport.
He has said he trafficked the drugs to earn enough money to pay his
twin brother's legal bills.
Nguyen's case has aroused strong feelings in Australia.
There have been calls for Prime Minister John Howard to stay away from
an international cricket match on Friday.
But Mr Howard has said he has to attend the match, and has also ruled
out a suggestion the nation should observe a minute's silence on the
day.
However, a church in the area of Melbourne where Nguyen Tuong Van and
his brother Khoa grew up, will hold a special service on Friday, after
which the church bell will toll 25 times - one peal for each year of
Nguyen's life.
Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry, said his client was calm.
"He's composed and although I wouldn't say he's not frightened,
he's remained courageous and is showing incredible fortitude,"
Mr Lasry said.
His mother, brother and two of his friends are in Singapore to comfort
him this week, although they can only talk to Nguyen through a glass
barrier.
His mother has put in an official request to be able to hug him before
he dies.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/4477012.stm
Speak your mind and don't just sit around. You
can E-mail me and I will put it on this site. A blog will come as well
in the next couple of days.
This morning I brought my Hun to the taxi and went to buy some legal
substance, tobacco. As I passed the Changi Prison here in Singapore
I saw the media hanging around and thought that it might be some lucky
fellow will be released.
So on my way back from the store I went there to ask, but it is the
opposite, some Melbourne bloke might not leave Singapore alive he got
the capital punishment.
Hope is still there, but probably not enough can and will be done so
that this Melbourne human being can breathe and feel.
The media then made an interview with me, the Australian media that
is, and I gave my view about it.
My view simply is, “no death for drugs!”
And
“a second chance” which in many Asian countries does not
exist.
I’m one of the few really lucky ones who somehow fought and got
a second chance and I’m really grateful for that, there is absolutely
no doubt.
The Australian government has put another clemency for that Melbourne
man and I wish that it will get through.
Like I told the media, the governments of all the nations should come
to clear agreements before something like this happen then they don’t
need to put clemency.
Sure, now the Singaporean government don’t want to give in ‘cos
of their face, not losing face to their people and other nations by
giving in.
Singapore is standing to their laws and has the rights to do so.
Let me give you the entire interview if I will get from the news media.
I really forgot to ask for name cards, silly me. Now I can only hope
that they will get in touch with me somehow.
I’ll try to keep you updated on this issue. The newspaper interview
should be in the Herald
Sun by tomorrow. The journalist is Russel Robinson.
The TV interview I have no idea yet and hopefully will get the news.
See ya and stay in touch
November 23,
2005
Central Asia's
deadly cargo
By Sarah Buckley
BBC News
For more than a decade Central Asia has been a key conduit for
the world's heroin, smuggled from Afghanistan to markets in Europe and
Russia.
But now Central Asian governments face a new challenge - a rapid rise
in heroin use by their own people.
According to the UN, drug abuse in the region has reached "alarming"
levels.
Figures from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) point to a 17-fold
increase in opiate abuse between 1990 and 2002, as countries endured
the upheavals of independence following the end of Soviet rule.
Drug users - mainly taking heroin - are now estimated to make up almost
1% of Central Asia's population, three times the rate in the rest of
Asia.
Drug abuse in Central Asia has
reached 'alarming' proportions, the UN says
And users are not only at risk from the drug.
"Seventy to 80% of new HIV cases are injecting
drug users. It is the biggest threat for most governments, in terms
of what this is doing to Central Asia," according to James Callahan,
the UNODC representative in the region.
"Most experts feel if Central Asia doesn't get
a handle on this, it can jump into the general population through sexual
transmission," he said.
Tackling traffickers
The most effective way to reduce heroin consumption
in Central Asia would, of course, be to reduce the amount trafficked
through the region.
But this is not easy given the region's location, its
poverty, corruption and erratic relations between governments.
HEROIN SEIZURES 2003 (UN FIGURES)
Tajikistan - 5,600kg
Uzbekistan - 336kg
Kazakhstan - 707kg
Turkmenistan - 81kg
Kyrgyzstan - 105kg
Of the five Central Asian states, Tajikistan is seen
by analysts as having the worst trafficking problem.
Measuring the trade is obviously difficult, and most
of the available statistics are supplied by governments, which can have
their own agendas.
But according to UN figures, Tajikistan - a country
of 6.3m people, seized almost as much heroin in 2003 as Pakistan, home
to 161m.
"If you see a nice car in Tajikistan, some say:
'I wonder how many kilos it cost?,'" said Svante Cornell at the
Central Asia Caucasus Institute.
Tajikistan's drug trafficking problem partly stems from
its poverty - exacerbated by civil war between 1992 and 1997 - and partly
due to its topography. More than 90% of its land is mountainous and
difficult to farm.
It also has a 1,344-km long, and inaccessible, border
with Afghanistan, which is currently proving difficult to police.
The Tajik-Afghan border is poorly policed
Analysts say the Tajik guards, who took over full control
of the border from Russia in August, are poorly trained and lack proper
equipment, "all the way to socks and boots", said Michael
Hall, director of the Central Asia programme at the International Crisis
Group.
In some countries in the region, the trafficking problem
is exacerbated - according to Mr Cornell and others - by high-level
collusion.
"The circumstantial evidence [of this] is simply
overwhelming," Mr Cornell said.
In Turkmenistan, a very secretive country which has
refused to give any information on drugs to the UN in the last five
years, the situation is unclear. But there is anecdotal evidence that
it is involved in trafficking at the highest levels, Mr Cornell said.
Specialist success
Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmonov has said that
trafficking should be stopped at its source, in Afghanistan, and has
also complained that the international community has been slow to provide
money and equipment to man the border.
Analysts say he has also shown some commitment to tackling
trafficking, creating a dedicated central drugs control agency.
Gerald Moebius, the UNODC's field officer in Bishkek,
said that having specialised drug enforcement structures had proved
effective.
"As long as there is demand
for heroin in Europe and Russia, people will find a way to get it across" Michael Hall
He said Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan both employed a central drugs control
agency, while the other countries relied on police and security services.
Last year, Kyrgyzstan's agency was responsible for 60-70%
of seizures, even though it only numbers 200 people, compared to 30,000
staff in other law enforcement agencies, he said.
So what else can be done?
Mr Hall believes the focus needs to be on poverty alleviation
programmes.
Tajikistan needs micro credit schemes, agricultural
reform, and a banking system that can process remittances from relatives
working in Russia and Kazakhstan, he said.
Mr Callahan said the UN was trying to promote the use
of intelligence, so that it could target traffickers above the level
of the mule.
He said that police forces in the region were "fairly
militarised" and focus on a direct approach of stopping suspects
and interrogating them. But the UN is pushing a system of gathering
information on those intercepted - and putting information such as their
phone records in a database for cross-referencing.
But in the long run, all these solutions are "band-aid
approaches", according to Mr Hall.
"As long as there is demand for heroin in Europe
and Russia, people will find a way to get it across," he said.
If you want to find a little about
the Silk Road and other related topics, a great site to get knowledge!
The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road
Studies Program constitute a joint Transatlantic Research and Policy
Center. The Center is independent and privately funded, and has offices
in Washington, D.C., and Uppsala, Sweden. The Center is affiliated with
the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns
Hopkins University, and with the Department of East European Studies
at Uppsala University. It is the first Institution of its kind in both
Europe and North America, and is firmly established as a leading focus
of research and policy worldwide, serving a large and diverse community
of analysts, scholars, policy-watchers, business leaders, journalists,
and students. Central
Asia Caucasus Institute
