[D66] America’s Vassal Acts Decisively and Illegally

[Antid Oto]

Imperialist lawlessness and the witch-hunt against Julian Assange
http://wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/assa-a18.shtml

On 17-8-2012 9:36, Antid Oto wrote:
> http://wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/assa-a17.shtml
>
> On 17-8-2012 9:31, Antid Oto wrote:
>> http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/08/americas-vassal-acts-decisively-and-illegally/
>>
>> by craig on August 16, 2012 11:30 am in Uncategorized
>>
>> I returned to the UK today to be astonished by private confirmation from within
>> the FCO that the UK government has indeed decided – after immense pressure from
>> the Obama administration – to enter the Ecuadorean Embassy and seize Julian Assange.
>>
>> This will be, beyond any argument, a blatant breach of the Vienna Convention of
>> 1961, to which the UK is one of the original parties and which encodes the
>> centuries – arguably millennia – of practice which have enabled diplomatic
>> relations to function. The Vienna Convention is the most subscribed single
>> international treaty in the world.
>>
>> The provisions of the Vienna Convention on the status of diplomatic premises are
>> expressed in deliberately absolute terms. There is no modification or
>> qualification elsewhere in the treaty.
>>
>> Article 22
>>
>> 1.The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving
>> State may not enter
>> them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.
>> 2.The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to
>> protect the premises
>> of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of
>> the peace of the
>> mission or impairment of its dignity.
>> 3.The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and
>> the means of
>> transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or
>> execution.
>>
>> Not even the Chinese government tried to enter the US Embassy to arrest the
>> Chinese dissident Chen Guangchen. Even during the decades of the Cold War,
>> defectors or dissidents were never seized from each other’s embassies. Murder in
>> Samarkand relates in detail my attempts in the British Embassy to help Uzbek
>> dissidents. This terrible breach of international law will result in British
>> Embassies being subject to raids and harassment worldwide.
>>
>> The government’s calculation is that, unlike Ecuador, Britain is a strong enough
>> power to deter such intrusions. This is yet another symptom of the “might is
>> right” principle in international relations, in the era of the neo-conservative
>> abandonment of the idea of the rule of international law.
>>
>> The British Government bases its argument on domestic British legislation. But
>> the domestic legislation of a country cannot counter its obligations in
>> international law, unless it chooses to withdraw from them. If the government
>> does not wish to follow the obligations imposed on it by the Vienna Convention,
>> it has the right to resile from it – which would leave British diplomats with no
>> protection worldwide.
>>
>> I hope to have more information soon on the threats used by the US
>> administration. William Hague had been supporting the move against the concerted
>> advice of his own officials; Ken Clarke has been opposing the move against the
>> advice of his. I gather the decision to act has been taken in Number 10.
>>
>> There appears to have been no input of any kind from the Liberal Democrats. That
>> opens a wider question – there appears to be no “liberal” impact now in any
>> question of coalition policy. It is amazing how government salaries and
>> privileges and ministerial limousines are worth far more than any belief to
>> these people. I cannot now conceive how I was a member of that party for over
>> thirty years, deluded into a genuine belief that they had principles.
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