Denial of Airspace to Bolivian Leader Resonates at U.N.

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Inter Press Service News Agency

Denial of Airspace to Bolivian Leader Resonates at U.N.
Published on July 11th, 2013
Written by: Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 2013 (IPS) – The growing political uproar over the unlawful denial of European airspace for a jet carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales has spilled over into the United Nations.

The 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the largest single political grouping in the world body, has expressed its “deep concern over the flagrant violation of the diplomatic immunity” of a sitting head of state.

“This serious incident put at risk the life of the Head of State of a sovereign developing country and the entourage that accompanied him by forcing the official airplane that carried him to make an emergency landing in Austria,” said the NAM statement.

“The Heads of State and their airplanes enjoy full immunity in accordance with international law,” the group asserted.

On Tuesday, a delegation of ambassadors from Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to register a formal protest over the violation of diplomatic immunity. The meeting was followed by widespread speculation that the issue may surface at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and possibly before the 193-member General Assembly in New York.

Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/07/denial-of-airspace-to-bolivian-leader-resonates-at-u-n/

[iemitsu]

1. I hope this issue is brought up before the general assembly

and that such a stink is made that the American press has to address it.
We have become the rouge state. Will heads of state, and their ambassadors, fear traveling abroad? Are we beginning a new dark ages? Is that what makes us exceptional?
Disgraceful behavior on the part of our government and the lackey governments that follow our orders.

[frylock]

2. so this isn't just going to blow over, as some posters would insist

good.

[idwiyo]

3. I sure hope it doesn't. Whoever was responsible for this should spend a considerable time in prison.

[frylock]

4. i'd like to see the state dept pull their head from out their ass and finally just admit..

that they made the call. I don't know who they think they're fooling. well, I can name a few posters here. Kerry is looking like a damn fool imho.

[allin99]

14. exactly. just lay it the fuck out...

who called who, who made the call, who did they talk to, what was said.

i'm stunned at kerry. i can see obama doing it, but kerry? i guess i didn't realize what a fucking douche his is.

[WillyT]

5. HUGE K & R !!!

[another_liberal]

6. Good for them!

Our assuming a right to be first among equals in international relations is going to earn us serious repercussions. Americans yet unborn are going to pay a terrible price if we don't stop this kind of arrogant behavior toward other countries. We are not "exceptional" and above the laws which govern all nations. Claiming a unilateral right to do what we want because of "National Security" or because we're "Fighting Terrorism" doesn't make this kind of action legal either, at least not in the eyes of the rest of the World.

[BillyRibs]

7. Can't Wait for this

to Bite them squarely on the ass!

[bvar22]

8. THis incident is FAR from over,

...and will only result in driving the emerging democracies and their markets in Latin America further into the welcoming arms of Russia, China, and Iran,
and WHO can blame them?

[forestpath]

9. K&R

[reusrename]

10. There's a little sanity left out there.

But this may turn into a NATO against the world issue instead of a US against the world.

[carolinayellowdog]

11. NATO citizens against their own governments

the furor about surveillance seems greatest in the countries most deeply implicated

[Catherina]

17. Funny you should say that... ‘This is not the time of Empires’

Address made by Álvaro Gar­cía Lin­era, Bolivian Vice-​President, during Pres­id­ent Evo Morales’s deten­tion at Vienna air­port


‘This is not the time of Empires’: The Kidnap of Morales


This is an affront to all Bolivi­ans. Every Bolivian today feels out­raged, we feel offen­ded. But along with the Bolivi­ans all the peoples of the world feel offen­ded, the peas­ants of the world, the work­ers of the world, the intel­lec­tu­als of the world, the young people of the world, the decent per­sons of the world, who see how a dec­ad­ent, con­niv­ing power uses its power, its arrog­ance, to attack a simple people, a decent people, hard­work­ing, such as the Bolivian people. A decent Pres­id­ent, a hard­work­ing Pres­id­ent, an indi­gen­ous Pres­id­ent, as is Pres­id­ent Evo.

...

I say it again, you do not scare us. We have been in con­tact with Pres­id­ent Evo since the moment that he was instruc­ted that he could not pass through French ter­rit­ory. We are in con­ver­sa­tion with our Chan­cel­lor, our Min­is­ter of Gov­ern­ment, the min­is­ters in per­man­ent con­ver­sa­tion with the Pres­id­ent. We know the cur­rent status of his situ­ation and we main­tain strength, strength from the dig­nity that he will not bend. The Bolivi­ans will not bend, the Latin Amer­ic­ans will not bend, they will not make Pres­id­ent Evo bend, never again will they bend the indi­gen­ous peoples who have raised their heads to define our own destiny.

No power, neither dec­ad­ent ones or those who long for the old eras of putre­fied colo­ni­al­ism are going to scare us, they will not make us step back, they will not make us give in.

The full cab­inet, now in ses­sion for hours, calls first of all to the peoples of the world, to the peoples of the world to repu­di­ate this abus­ive, anti­demo­cratic stance that goes against the prin­ciples that reg­u­late peace­ful and demo­cratic co-​existence between peoples, civ­il­ised, to repu­di­ate this kind of trog­lo­dyte, archaic, colo­ni­al­ist and abus­ive stance against Pres­id­ent Evo.

We call on the work­ers of the world, to the labour­ers of Europe, to the youth of Europe, to young peas­ants and labour­ers through­out the world, where there are peoples, where there are mil­lions of Evo Mor­ales, to mani­fest their objec­tion, to mani­fest their out­rage against this act of imper­ial arrog­ance, to mani­fest their objec­tion to this imper­ial kid­nap­ping of Pres­id­ent Evo.

....

http://criticallegalthinking.com/2013/07/08/this-is-not-the-time-of-empires-the-kidnap-of-morales/

[panzerfaust]

12. Calm down. Its OK. Obama said so.

And, after all, his word carries the force of law not just in our former democracy, but throughout the world

The New York Times' recent revelation that President Obama, operating off a government "kill list," has been personally directing who should be targeted for death by military drones (unmanned aerial assault vehicles) merely pushes us that much closer to that precipitous drop-off to authoritarianism. Should we fail to recognize and rectify the danger in allowing a single individual to declare himself the exception to the rule of law and assume the role of judge, jury, and executioner, we will have no one else to blame when we plunge once and for all into the abyss that is tyranny.

more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/terror-tuesdays-kill-list_b_1606371.html

Currently Obama claims and exercises the extralegal power to have anyone, anywhere in the world killed on his decision alone. He claims, and exercises, the unconstitutional powers of warantless search, secret and indefinite detention, and many other violations not only of the rule of law, but of basic human rights.

I am so disheartened that the majority of the people in this country embrace the false promise of security offered by our increasingly totalitarian state. There seems no understanding of freedom, of justice - or of history.

[allin99]

13. Good, they should not get away with this shit. Gosh,...

i'm used to saying "we" when it's the u.s., no matter who's in charge, but i can't even type we in relation to this act. And i don't want to type "the admin" either b/c i can't even stand to think of them as doing that even though i know they did. When bush does stuff, i'm disgusted and at least i know it has nothing to do with me, but i voted for the dems, always have, always considered them as representing me, but i just feel disgusted right now.

[24601]

15. This article has inaccurate information. The biggest error is implying that diplomatic immunity

equates to the right to violate a nation's sovereign airspace. It does not.

What nations are required to do is allow safe harbor to ships & planes declaring an emergency. But that means allowing them to come into port or land, not transit your airspace because that would be the most convenient way home. And nobody on board has to have immunity - there just has to be an emergency.

Somebody post with a straight face that Iran would allow the Israeli President over-flight. Convince us that the South Korean President can take a short cut over North Korea on the way to China.

It just isn't so.

[Catherina]

16. Rec'd with delight. This has got to end.

“The Europeans and Americans think that we are living in the era of empires and colonies. They are wrong. We are free people. They think that by intervening in our affairs, staging coups, installing neoliberals or military dictatorships they can suck out our resources. But this is in the past, they can no longer do this.”

...

“Anyone can be wrong and anyone can make mistakes. But it is important that these are corrected. But if somebody provokes us again and again, like the US, we have a right to defend ourselves from insults.”

http://rt.com/news/morales-snowden-rt-interview-760/