Immunity no longer means impunity for diplomats?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 3, 1997 | by Refet Kaplan, | Walden Siew

Noting that moral principle outweighs political considerations, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said his government would waive the diplomatic immunity of its envoy involved in a car accident in early January that killed a 16-year-old girl from a Washington suburb.

Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, had asked President Clinton to withhold $30 million in aid to the republic until it waived immunity for Gueorgui Makharadze, 35, who specializes in commercial affairs at the Georgian Embassy.

But Shevardnadze emphasized that his decision "must not be considered as though a large country has brought a small one to its knees," and he called for a reexamination of diplomatic immunity in the post-Cold War era.

"New relations call for a new set of guidelines governing the operation of diplomatic services," he said in a statement. "Rules of diplomatic conduct must create a basis for greater fairness and objectivity. Often the mantle of state succeeds in protect" the diplomat while the average citizen ... suffers."

Shevardnadze's decision is almost unprecedented. Diplomats have lost their immunity when charged with minor crimes but rarely in a case this serious. Makharadze could face charges ranging from negligent homicide to second-degree murder "It has been the practice of the Clinton administration in [serious criminal cases] to request the departure of the offending diplomat," says State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns.

The issue of a diplomat's behavior in the United States sometimes is contentious. Along with the Makharadze case, the State Department is dealing with a dispute among Russia, Belarus and New York City involving a brawl between envoys and police.

Persistent complaints about diplomats' behavior prompted Congress two years ago to pass a law that withholds foreign aid for countries that have unpaid parking tickets or other court fines. The issue is a delicate one for the State Department, which despite the controversy surrounding Makharadze offered a strong defense of the principle of diplomatic immunity.

"It makes sense ... for us to maintain the practice and law of diplomatic immunity because it protects Americans overseas," says Burns. "But it also stands to reason that diplomats serving in the United States obey our laws, that they do not willfully violate laws."

He rejected suggestions that the Makharadze case argued the need for a reevaluation of the diplomatic-immunity system. Critics have asked that blanket immunity traditionally offered diplomats be limited to functions and incidents related to their work, not to cases such as traffic accidents.

Attaches Attacked?

Tensions reminiscent of the Cold War erupted during the holidays over a traffic incident that resulted in a brawl between New York City police officers and U.N. diplomats. The envoys said they were attacked by New York's finest. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the diplomats were drunk and disorderly and, what's more, they should pay their outstanding parking tickets.

In a letter to the mayor, Alexander Sychou, the U.N. ambassador from Belarus, charged that his first secretary, Yuri N. Orange, and the first secretary of the Russian mission, Boris Obnossov, were stopped by police after lunching in a Chinese restaurant in upper Manhattan on Dec. 29.

The diplomats were sitting in their car, according to Sychou, when the officers wrote up a barking ticket and then dragged the men out of the car, smashing the Russian's glasses, tearing his clothes - and breaking his arm. Sychou called the event a violation of international law and demanded a "thorough investigation ... official explanations and apologies [and] disciplinary action."

Giuliani said seven witnesses support the officers' version: that the diplomats were drunk and that one of them attacked an officer when asked to get out of the car. The mayor has called for an apology and the immediate expulsion of the two diplomats, reminding Sychou that Belarus owes the city $41,400 plus penalties for the 828 summonses diplomats received in the first six months of 1996 alone.

"The Russians have 14,437 summonses for 222 cars which they haven't paid," adds Marilyn Mode, a deputy police commissioner. "From now on we will write a summons and then tow it.... They can go down and claim their car and wait in line like anybody else." Violators face tow charges of $150, tickets of about $50, plus payment of outstanding tickets.

At best, relations between official New York and its diplomatic community have been characterized by long periods of detente punctuated by patriotic eruptions. There are reports from the Bronx that teenage children of Russian diplomats in the sedate Riverdale neighborhood are running wild, harassing residents and defacing property - flouting the law because of their parents' diplomatic immunity. Local radio talk-show hosts are calling for the United Nations to move out of New York, and the tabloids refer to the foreign guests as "diplobrats."