Incident
After withdrawing cash from a bank cash machine, he was driving alone in his white Honda Civic and had stopped at a traffic light near Qurtaba Chowk in the Mozang Chungi area of Lahore when two men pulled alongside him on a motorbike. After one of the young men allegedly brandished a pistol at him, Davis opened fire and killed both of them with his own 9mm Glock pistol.
Davis claimed to the police his actions were in self-defense. Davis' weapon was not licensed. The two men on the motorcycle were parked at the light in front of Davis' car. Davis shot them through his windshield. After the shooting, Davis is alleged to have exited his car to take pictures and videos of his victims with his cell phone. Faizan Haider was still alive at the time. He later died in hospital. Another version of events is that Davis shot five rounds through his windshield, got out of his vehicle and shot four more rounds into the two men as they lay on the pavement.
Davis himself left the scene but was apprehended by two traffic wardens at Old Anarkali Food Street in Anarkali Bazaar, where he was handed over to police. People gathered at the scene blocked the roads and burnt tires in protest of the incident. Later, the demonstrations moved to the police station where Davis' car had been impounded. According to some news sources, items recovered from Davis' car included a portable telescope, a wallet, US and Pakistani currency, a digital camera, computer memory cards, a passport, a cellphone, first aid kit items, a box cutter and a flashlight.
Raymond's Status
Davis claims to have diplomatic immunity. The Punjab authorities (the province in which Davis was arrested) claim that Davis was not on a diplomatic visa but on an official business visa. The Government of the United States of America claims that Raymond Davis is a diplomat and should not have been arrested or be prosecuted under Pakistani law for he is covered by diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The United States of America and Pakistani governments do not agree on what the legal status of Raymond Davis is in Pakistan. Davis, who was first claimed by the US embassy as a Lahore consulate staffer and was later declared as assigned to the Islamabad embassy, was, at the time of his arrest and according to his interrogators, also carrying an ID showing that he worked for the US consulate general in Peshawar. In the video of his interrogation, Davis is heard and seen showing several ID badges around his neck, and states that one is from Islamabad, and one is from Lahore. He then adds, "I work as a consultant there".
What Is Vienna Convention?
Davis claims to have diplomatic immunity. The Punjab authorities (the province in which Davis was arrested) claim that Davis was not on a diplomatic visa but on an official business visa. The Government of the United States of America claims that Raymond Davis is a diplomat and should not have been arrested or be prosecuted under Pakistani law for he is covered by diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The United States of America and Pakistani governments do not agree on what the legal status of Raymond Davis is in Pakistan. Davis, who was first claimed by the US embassy as a Lahore consulate staffer and was later declared as assigned to the Islamabad embassy, was, at the time of his arrest and according to his interrogators, also carrying an ID showing that he worked for the US consulate general in Peshawar. In the video of his interrogation, Davis is heard and seen showing several ID badges around his neck, and states that one is from Islamabad, and one is from Lahore. He then adds, "I work as a consultant there".
According to US officials even though senior Pakistani officials believe in private that Davis is protected under Vienna convention the government appears to be unwilling or unable to enforce the protocol.
In two articles appearing in a Pakistani newspaper called The Express Tribune, the precise status of Davis's and the American Government's claim of immunity has been examined by Najmuddin Shaikh a former Pakistani diplomat. He wrote that the question of diplomatic immunity depends on whether Davis was on the staff of the 'consulate' or the 'embassy' as the privileges and immunities of each are very different. If Davis was on the staff of the 'embassy' Shaik points out that the question of immunity would depend upon whether Davis was in Mozang Chowrangi in the ‘course of his duties’ and who should decide that. Regarding the law concerning if Davis was on the 'consular' staff, a practising lawyer in Islamabad, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, quoting the Vienna Convention of 1963 wrote in The News International: “one needs to read Article 41 (1) which says: Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority. Now having read the law, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that if a member of US Consulate in Lahore kills someone, he is answerable to a court of law in that jurisdiction, as there is no other crime more heinous or more grave than murder."Pakistani investigators have determined that Davis did not shoot the two men acting in self-defence and the police are recommending he face a charge of double murder.
Writing for Counterpunch, the journalist Dave Lindorff has written "in other words, the prosecutorial, police and judicial authorities in Lahore and the state of Punjab are doing exactly what they are supposed to do in holding Davis on murder charges, pending a judicial determination concerning whether or not he can properly claim diplomatic immunity. The US claim that Pakistan is violating the convention is simply nonsense."
Davis in the mobile phone video of his interrogation did not claim that he had a diplomatic rank, but rather that he was "doing consulting work for the consular general, who is based at the US consulate in Lahore." According to USA Today "U.S. officials in Islamabad will say only that he was an American Embassy employee who was considered part of the 'administrative and technical staff'What Is Vienna Convention?
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 is an international treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries. It specifies the privileges of a diplomatic mission that enable diplomats to perform their function without fear of coercion or harassment by the host country. This forms the legal basis for diplomatic immunity. Its articles are considered a cornerstone of modern international relations. It has been ratified by 186 countries. The 1961 UN Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations will mark its 50th anniversary in April 2011
Yet another crisis has erupted in Pakistan. Raymond Davis, an American national driving on the busiest corner of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, shot at two Pakistani nationals on January 27, 2011. Soon he was arrested by the provincial authorities and is now being tried under the Pakistani laws. Many questions have emerged: was Davis a diplomat; why was he in Pakistan and if he enjoys diplomatic immunity or not.
More often than not, we as Pakistanis feel that we are not given the respect we deserve as a sovereign nation, and that we are not taken seriously by the international community. We feel unfairly lumped together with a few bad apples marring our national character through their involvement in terrorism, illegal immigration, and other grave misdemeanors, whereas the vast majority of Pakistanis are peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Now, we have before us a opportunity to prove those who would judge us by our green passport dead wrong, and do the right thing, despite popular protests being whipped up for political gain.
Did U.S. diplomat Raymond Davis commit the cold-blooded murder of two innocent, cell phone-and-gun-loving boys, or was it self-defense against a robbery in broad daylight? The answer is worth investigating but not all that relevant. Davis ostensibly carries a Diplomatic Passport (as stated by our Interior Minister), and he was allowed to travel to Pakistan on such by our own Foreign Ministry. As galling as it might be to some quarters, we will have to let him go, not because we want to aid and abet murder, but rather, by respecting the long-established principle of diplomatic immunity, we show our strength and stability to the world, and show the international community that we are not a “rogue” or “terrorist” state, but rather one which respects international standards, conventions and agreements.
The tradition of diplomatic immunity goes back hundreds of years. In 1814, the Congress of Vienna met to straighten out national borders after the Napoleonic wars. Ambassadors from all major powers redrew Europe’s map and in doing so, specifically noted the strong protection that ambassadors were owed while in host countries. This vision was later codified in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a UN-based conference and treaty, to which Pakistan and the United States are both signatories.
But why agree to a system in which we are dependent on a foreign country’s whims before we can prosecute a criminal inside our own borders, under our laws? The practical answer is because we depend on other countries to honor our own diplomats’ immunity just as scrupulously as we honor theirs. The concept of diplomatic immunity – safe passage for diplomats in potentially hostile territory – has existed in some form for many centuries. Envoys between armies, traveling under a white flag, have long been accepted as safe from attack. The principle involved isn’t law or treaty so much as Pakistan’s blatant self-interest: if we go after their emissaries, they’ll go after ours.
Today, boldly showing that Pakistan respects the concept of diplomatic immunity is extremely important. We need to make sure that foreign diplomats – especially our own diplomats abroad – do not get jailed for arbitrary or political reasons. By subjecting Raymond Davis to these local court proceedings, we are basically declaring open season on our own representatives overseas to be intimidated and harassed. Furthermore, by ignoring principle of diplomatic immunity, we are further extricating ourselves from the society of civilized nations. Do we, as a nation, aspire to be taken seriously in international forums, or would we rather join the ranks of tin-pot dictatorships like Belarus, Burma, Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan. It is already hard enough to travel on a green passport. Let us also not make it difficult for Pakistan’s own representatives on international assignments and project the true character of Pakistan as a nation of law and peace.
Why the World Honours Diplomatic Immunity?
Rapists, pedophiles, torturers, drug dealers, thieves, arms-smugglers and yes, murderers — these are the kinds of criminals the foreign authorities let slip past their justice system on a regular basis, to the overwhelming chagrin of their public and legislatures. Why? Because the overarching and long-established principle of diplomatic immunity is far too important for any other nation for that matter, to sacrifice for short-term political gains.
Much has been made in the press here of the rare exception of Georgian diplomat, Georgi Makharadze, who killed a 16-year old girl while driving drunk, and that his immunity was waived. However, this was truly remarkable, and in almost every other case, once invoked, diplomatic immunity gets any and all miscreants who have diplomatic immunity off scot-free, and they are quickly whisked home, where they may or may not face trial in their home country.
Examples abound of criminal activity perpetrated by diplomats serving in the U.S. going unpunished due to their immunity. Take the case of the Bangladeshi woman, who was enslaved by a senior Bahraini envoy to the UN and his wife. In 1999, she charged that the couple took her passport, beat her and paid her just $800 for ten months of work, and only allowed her out of their New York apartment twice. When she sued her employers, the U.S. Justice Department dismissed the case because the Bahraini envoy and his wife had diplomatic immunity. The Virginia police apprehended Salem Al-Mazrooei, after he had been driving for four hours to have sex with who he thought was a 13-year-old girl. He was immediately released once it was clear he was a UAE diplomat, and quickly left the country without prosecution.
In 1984, two Libyan diplomats shot and killed British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher from inside the Libyan Embassy in London, and were returned home and never prosecuted. In January 2001, a Russian diplomat in Ottawa, Canada hit two pedestrians with his car, killing one and seriously injuring the other. The police had previously stopped Andrei Knyazev on two different occasions on suspicion of alcohol-impaired driving. Although a request by the Canadian government to waive his immunity was refused, Knyazev was prosecuted in Russia for involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to four years in prison, serving time in a penal colony.
Under the Vienna Convention, the most a host country can ever do is expel a diplomat, declaring the person persona non grata (PNG), or a person who is officially no longer welcome. If he remains in the country after being PNG-ed, the diplomatic status may be revoked and the diplomat may be arrested like a regular citizen, if remaining there on his or her own free will. In some circumstances, the person committing the crime faces trial in their home country, like the U.S. Marine assigned to the U.S Embassy there who involved in a fatal car accident in Bucharest, Romania. He was later court-martialed and convicted of several charges, but not manslaughter.
The crimes by diplomats are also financial, costing the United States a fortune in unpaid fines, taxes and other fees. From 1997 to 2002, foreign diplomats in New York City racked up over 150,000 illegal parking tickets totaling $18 million in fines, and City officials had no means of collecting these. Outrage over the abuse of diplomatic immunity was so widespread that the nationally-televised comedy show Saturday Night Live satirically portrayed UN diplomats proposing going to lunch with as many illegally-parked vehicles as possible and in light of their diplomatic immunity, spending the afternoon stealing from a high-end boutique, to the horror of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. Almost none of tickets were ever paid by foreign missions, nor by their representatives.
Furthermore, there are three regimes that the U.S. has its most antagonistic relationships with: Iran, North Korea and Cuba. Bitter enmity has existed for decades on both sides, and yet each year, U.S. authorities permit their U.N. Ambassadors, ministry functionaries and even heads of state to romp around New York, making inflammatory, anti-American speeches at the UN and elsewhere. Why would America let these diplomats roam free in its largest city, while at the same time actively opposing their regimes at every turn? Again, the overriding principle is that of respecting diplomatic immunity, and ensuring that international norms are observed in law.
The fact is diplomatic immunity is too vital for the effective execution of statecraft in the modern day. Governments need to ensure that they treat diplomats — even those who commit crimes — as inviolable, so as to ensure that their own envoys and representatives can freely go about their business without fear or risk of persecution and harassment, by an otherwise hostile host nation.
Hysteria in Pakistan
The case of Raymond Davis, unfortunate as it is, has provided Pakistan’s right-wing the opportunity to whip up the kind of anti-Americanism that has become the greatest emotional banner of our nationalism. The religious parties soon after their alliance on blasphemy law now want Davis to be tried and punished or even worse, ‘traded’ for Afia Siddiqui. The two cases are different: one involves the murky world of terror networks and the other at best a reckless security ‘advisor’ of the US Embassy. Talk show after talk show has condemned the US and its high-handedness and has invoked national pride and the abstract notion of ‘justice’ here. As if by hanging Davis Pakistan will avenge America for its support to Israel and the drone attacks in the northwest. The reality could not be more complex and nuanced. We may hate the US but in these times we have to build and reformulate our bilateral relationship based on mutual respect.
Empty rhetoric will not do. We have to act as a mature, rational nation and discard the policy of blind hatred towards others. More importantly, we need to recognize that until we take care of our internal issues and challenges of poverty, inequality and skewed political participation of the people we cannot be truly sovereign.
Good Working Bro....Appreciated
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