A BUNDLE of anguished letters and pledges of undying love have become a heart-breaking Christmas memento for the fiance of a Hong Kong woman hanged in Singapore 48 hours ago. A final missive from Elke Tsang Kai-mong's death row cell spoke of her despair over feelings that her parents had 'disowned her rather than suffer a loss of face'. Tsang, the daughter of Hong Kong West Auxiliary Police Senior Superintendent Tsang Nim-tong, was executed on Friday morning after being convicted of trafficking in heroin at Changi Airport. Tsang's Singapore lawyers filed a last-ditch plea for a stay of execution until Lunar New Year, asking President Ong Teng Cheong to give the woman's father time to recover from an illness before flying to visit her. It was rejected 12 hours before the dawn execution on Friday. Tsang's father is understood to have refused all attempts to publicise his daughter's plight. Tsang's Hong Kong boyfriend, who asked to be named only as 'Ah Lam', said the pair had written constantly while she awaited the outcome of a series of appeals for clemency. The 30-year-old former Hunghom woman described her agony at being cut adrift from her family and pledged that 'if by some miracle' she was pardoned, she would return to Hong Kong to wed Ah Lam. 'I have been crying until my eyes are swollen,' she told him in her final epistle last month. They met at a disco 10 years ago and Tsang wrote every month from her tiny death-row cell, he said. Ah Lam said the former import-export company employee wrote of her family's shame at her predicament. The letters told how her family had left their Yuen Long home but left no forwarding address or telephone number. Parts of her letter which Ah Lam read to the Sunday Morning Post said: 'I feel really disappointed with my family. I don't want to keep passing my days like this; I feel really hurt. 'You said that you hoped I would be spending the last of my days with you. Do you think we can? And would you want to spend my last days with me?' she asked. 'I hope before my execution both you and Eva [a friend] will come and visit me one last time. This is my last wish.' Tsang was arrested at Changi Airport on July 26, 1992, carrying more than 4 kg of heroin sewn into a jacket. She told police a friend called 'Ah Jim' had asked her to fly to Bangkok with him to collect about $6,000 she had lent him. There, several men threatened her into carrying the heroin onto a plane. 'She's very naive and very trusting . . . she would do anything to help people in need,' Ah Lam said. Singapore lawyer Shireena Woon, acting for Tsang, said Ah Jim was believed to have been arrested in Europe. Tsang's parents flew to Singapore last Thursday and met her for the last time on Thursday, Ms Woon said. A friend of Tsang said her plight had not received the public attention and lobbying of Macau-born Hong Kong resident Angel Mou Pui-peng, on Singapore's death row. Mou, 25, was convicted of trafficking heroin in Singapore last year and is scheduled to hang on Friday. However, she has not yet been told of her execution date. Mou's sister Mei-mei told the Sunday Morning Post that Singaporean officials expect Mou's family to inform her of the scheduled hanging themselves. Mei-mei, her mother Wong Siu-mui, and Mou's nine-year-old son, Gary, are due to fly to Singapore today but they will not be allowed into Changi prison until December 20.
