As momentum grows for Australians to stop and recognise the execution, John Howard warned Singapore yesterday thatAustralians‘ anger would linger if Van was executed.

The former Melbourne salesman will be executed on Friday at 6am Singapore time, or 9am in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, 8am in Queensland, 8.30am in South Australia, 7.30am in the Northern Territory and 6am in Western Australia.

Friends Bronwyn Lew and Kelly Ng arrived in Singapore yesterday wearing ribbons and Van’s lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, said he would be wearing one when he arrives in Singapore later this week. A campaign for a minute’s silence was yesterday supported by church leaders and Liberal backbencher Bruce Baird, with Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and federal Labor deeming the gesture appropriate.

CHURCH leaders and members from both sides of Australian politics have called for the nation to stop and observe a minute’s silence on Friday when convicted drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van is due to be hanged.

As momentum grows for Australians to stop and recognise the execution, John Howard warned Singapore yesterday thatAustralians‘ anger would linger if Van was executed.

The Prime Minister’s meeting with his Singapore counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta was thought to be the last hope of clemency for Van, 25.

The former Melbourne salesman will be executed on Friday at 6am Singapore time, or 9am in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, 8am in Queensland, 8.30am in South Australia, 7.30am in the Northern Territory and 6am in Western Australia.

Van’s close friends yesterday urged people to adopt the yellow ribbon as a symbol of support for the condemned man.

Friends Bronwyn Lew and Kelly Ng arrived in Singapore yesterday wearing ribbons and Van’s lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, said he would be wearing one when he arrives in Singapore later this week. A campaign for a minute’s silence was yesterday supported by church leaders and Liberal backbencher Bruce Baird, with Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and federal Labor deeming the gesture appropriate.

“I would certainly at the time it might happen have a moment of reflection,” Mr Ruddock said.

Mr Ruddock did not believe the death penalty “in civil society … has any place”.

“I’ve been a fervent opponent of the death penalty all my life and all my public life,” Mr Ruddock told The Australian last night. “I don’t think in a civilised society it has any place. I would be very concerned at what I regard as barbaric behaviour.”

Mr Baird said he believed all Australians were “deeply disturbed” by Van’s story.

“I call on all Australians to observe one minute’s silence at 9am on Friday, to express our compassion for this young Australian and our opposition to the imposition of this barbaric sentence,” he said.

Uniting Church in Australia president Dean Drayton also supported “a public statement opposing capital punishment”.

“The Uniting Church has constantly supported the move worldwide to abolish the death sentence,” Dr Drayton said. “The issue is thevalue of human life, even when the person has done wrong.”

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Francis

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Carroll also supported the minute’s silence.

“The community has had an extraordinary interest in this and it is not a bad idea,” Archbishop Carroll said. “We are opposed to thedeath penalty in general. We simply don’t think it is an appropriate response to crimes.”

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls, who flew to Singapore last week in a further bid to save Van’s life, said the silent protest would be an appropriate gesture of support.

“Keeping in mind that he has committed a crime, the Victorian Government opposes the death penalty and supports the idea of a minute’s silence,” Mr Hulls said.

The calls come as lawyers continued last-minute arguments to have Van’s case put to the International Court of Justice.

Professor Donald Rothwell, Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney, yesterday wrote to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on instruction from Mr Lasry.

Professor Rothwell called on Canberra to ask Singapore again to take the matter to the International Court, saying the nation had accepted the court’s jurisdiction in the past.

Mr Howard said that he “specifically raised the issue of the jurisdiction of the (ICJ) and (Mr Lee) made it very clear that Singapore would not change its position”.

He emerged grim-faced from his meeting with Mr Lee, his plea for clemency — and another by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark — having failed.

“I can promise you I’ve tried in all the appropriate ways to persuade them to do otherwise and I regret that I have been unsuccessful,” he said.

Van was arrested at Changi airport three years ago while in transit from Cambodia to Australia with 400g of heroin in his possession. He has maintained he agreed to courier the drugs to pay off the debts of his heroin-addicted twin brother, Khoa.

Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said he would “be pausing wherever I am in Sydney for a minute’s silent observance … if Singapore proceeds with this appalling decision to execute Van by hanging”.

Mr Rudd called on the Government to “listen carefully to what the lawyers are saying about taking the action to the international court”. He said: “If Singapore rejects the jurisdiction of the court, let them do so publicly and explain why.”

Kim Beazley called for Mr Howard to give permission for a bipartisan delegation comprised of Mr Downer and Mr Rudd to make a final appeal this week to Mr Lee.

A spokesman for Mr Downer said the appeal would be “superfluous”.

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