Exploitation of Internatinal Law
Ben Christian | 18.09.2005 01:52 | Analysis | World
The world of diplomacy is complicated and complex enough as it is. We now face the possibility that wealthy people willing to pay large sums of money can buy diplomatic status from a well respected commonwealth member country.
In 1961 the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was established. This convention outlined the duties and immunities bestowed upon Diplomats of all UN member nations.
The most important part of this convention was the diplomatic immunity awarded to diplomats in the country they are assigned to - also known as the receiving state. These immunities include among others, immunity from prosecution.
It has become increasingly evident that corrupt governments and organisations are issuing diplomatic status to individuals in return for large sums of money. This is nothing new. It has been reported on many times in the past and completely ignored and dismissed as criminals simply offering forged documents.
After doing some research on the internet, I found there to be a few companies claiming to offer this service, this prompted me to take the matter further. I contacted one of these companies, the “International Diplomatic Credentials Committee (IDCC)” based in the Netherlands posing as a potential client.
I was informed that I could be appointed as a diplomat to my home nation, the United Kingdom. I would therefore be awarded full status by the United Kingdom in the form of an Exequatur issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The IDCC were extremely reluctant to provide me with the names of the countries involved for obvious reasons, however after much negotiation and several re-assurances which even included providing them with proof of available funds in my bank account. They finally agreed to discuss the matter in greater detail and provided me with the names of the countries providing this and the fees involved.
I was told I could choose from two South American nations or an African nation. I decided to choose the South American option; this is when I was offered the choice between the Republic of Guyana (Commonwealth Member) and the Republic of Suriname. Both of which are well respected worldwide.
“In your situation I would recommend you have the position from the Rep.
of Guyana (British Commonwealth member). This South
American country has good relations with all regions, including Canada,
the US and EU.” – Representative of IDCC.
They went on to say about the fees involved…
“The fees for a modest active diplomatic position will be:
30,000 Euro – citizenship will be 7,000 Euro. In total it will be 37,000 Euro.” – Representative of IDCC
The fee for this service is 37,000 Euro; this price includes Guyanese Citizenship which has a fee of 7000 Euro. This fee would buy me the following...
+ Diplomatic Passport
+ Diplomatic Identification Card
+ Letter of Appointment
+ Exequatur (issued by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
Initially I was suspicious that it may be nothing more than a fraudulent service where I would pay and never hear from them again. This was until they agreed to use an Escrow payment service of my choice.
Escrow works by holding the money until the buyer is in receipt of the product and is satisfied with its authenticity and quality, at that time the Escrow Company releases the money to the seller.
This provided me a reasonable level of re-assurance that the service offered was genuine.
In addition to this, the claim that I would have received an Exequatur which is a letter from the receiving state (the UK) welcoming me and giving me permission to carry out my diplomatic duties within the country only served to provide even more re-assurance that this was far from being a scam as I first suspected.
You can imagine the benefits of obtaining this kind of status and immunity if you are a criminal! Although in their defence - I was informed that a criminal records check would be conducted on all applicants including myself…
"Each government runs a full criminal check on each new potential
diplomat." – Representative of IDCC
I personally think this is useless for screening applications. It is not unusual for criminals involved in organised crime to have a clean criminal history.
There were still doubts in my mind about the authenticity of these claims so I decided to contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom.
To my complete surprise, they confirmed that they do suspect there are foreign governments and non governmental organisations offering diplomatic positions to wealthy individuals.
They were of course unable to comment on whether they believe any of these “diplomats” are resident in the UK but they are most definitely aware of the issue.
The world is full of corruption and chaos. International law is supposed to exist to promote peace and international stability. It does not exist to help criminals commit crime. If these services are authentic then something needs to be done about it.
I decided to inform the IDCC that I may be intending to write an article about their services, the meaning of their response is open to speculation…
"I am not aware of your articles so far, but if they do not damage the Guyana as a country and do not damage its citizens in any way, I think it will be beneficial for all parties." – Representative of IDCC
In theory it’s a bargain deal, around £25,000 to become above the law unless you commit a serious crime. You can live a pleasurable life protected behind a barrier of international law and agreements between nations dating back decades.
Of course it’s always open to speculation but even the possibility of the existence of someone holding this status that is not entitled to do so is against everything a democracy is supposed to stand for. This is just another example of a government caring more about financial gain than the welfare of people.
The most important part of this convention was the diplomatic immunity awarded to diplomats in the country they are assigned to - also known as the receiving state. These immunities include among others, immunity from prosecution.
It has become increasingly evident that corrupt governments and organisations are issuing diplomatic status to individuals in return for large sums of money. This is nothing new. It has been reported on many times in the past and completely ignored and dismissed as criminals simply offering forged documents.
After doing some research on the internet, I found there to be a few companies claiming to offer this service, this prompted me to take the matter further. I contacted one of these companies, the “International Diplomatic Credentials Committee (IDCC)” based in the Netherlands posing as a potential client.
I was informed that I could be appointed as a diplomat to my home nation, the United Kingdom. I would therefore be awarded full status by the United Kingdom in the form of an Exequatur issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The IDCC were extremely reluctant to provide me with the names of the countries involved for obvious reasons, however after much negotiation and several re-assurances which even included providing them with proof of available funds in my bank account. They finally agreed to discuss the matter in greater detail and provided me with the names of the countries providing this and the fees involved.
I was told I could choose from two South American nations or an African nation. I decided to choose the South American option; this is when I was offered the choice between the Republic of Guyana (Commonwealth Member) and the Republic of Suriname. Both of which are well respected worldwide.
“In your situation I would recommend you have the position from the Rep.
of Guyana (British Commonwealth member). This South
American country has good relations with all regions, including Canada,
the US and EU.” – Representative of IDCC.
They went on to say about the fees involved…
“The fees for a modest active diplomatic position will be:
30,000 Euro – citizenship will be 7,000 Euro. In total it will be 37,000 Euro.” – Representative of IDCC
The fee for this service is 37,000 Euro; this price includes Guyanese Citizenship which has a fee of 7000 Euro. This fee would buy me the following...
+ Diplomatic Passport
+ Diplomatic Identification Card
+ Letter of Appointment
+ Exequatur (issued by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
Initially I was suspicious that it may be nothing more than a fraudulent service where I would pay and never hear from them again. This was until they agreed to use an Escrow payment service of my choice.
Escrow works by holding the money until the buyer is in receipt of the product and is satisfied with its authenticity and quality, at that time the Escrow Company releases the money to the seller.
This provided me a reasonable level of re-assurance that the service offered was genuine.
In addition to this, the claim that I would have received an Exequatur which is a letter from the receiving state (the UK) welcoming me and giving me permission to carry out my diplomatic duties within the country only served to provide even more re-assurance that this was far from being a scam as I first suspected.
You can imagine the benefits of obtaining this kind of status and immunity if you are a criminal! Although in their defence - I was informed that a criminal records check would be conducted on all applicants including myself…
"Each government runs a full criminal check on each new potential
diplomat." – Representative of IDCC
I personally think this is useless for screening applications. It is not unusual for criminals involved in organised crime to have a clean criminal history.
There were still doubts in my mind about the authenticity of these claims so I decided to contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom.
To my complete surprise, they confirmed that they do suspect there are foreign governments and non governmental organisations offering diplomatic positions to wealthy individuals.
They were of course unable to comment on whether they believe any of these “diplomats” are resident in the UK but they are most definitely aware of the issue.
The world is full of corruption and chaos. International law is supposed to exist to promote peace and international stability. It does not exist to help criminals commit crime. If these services are authentic then something needs to be done about it.
I decided to inform the IDCC that I may be intending to write an article about their services, the meaning of their response is open to speculation…
"I am not aware of your articles so far, but if they do not damage the Guyana as a country and do not damage its citizens in any way, I think it will be beneficial for all parties." – Representative of IDCC
In theory it’s a bargain deal, around £25,000 to become above the law unless you commit a serious crime. You can live a pleasurable life protected behind a barrier of international law and agreements between nations dating back decades.
Of course it’s always open to speculation but even the possibility of the existence of someone holding this status that is not entitled to do so is against everything a democracy is supposed to stand for. This is just another example of a government caring more about financial gain than the welfare of people.
Ben Christian
e-mail:
voyageruk@gmail.com
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
LOL
18.09.2005 19:48
Maybe it's not true for Great Britain, but here in the US perhaps half the diplomatic posts are "bought". And I am NOT talking about the direction you are talking about but the other way around. In other words, the ambassadors and consuls sent to important countries or places where critical things are goign on are diplomatic core professionals. But if a party fat cat wants a reward, they can get to be "ambassador to the Maldives" or some such place. The incentive is NOT to have diplomatic immunity in the Maldives (unlikley to be on duty except for vacations) but the social distinction. And I am being generous about the "importance" issues because I seem to recall that not all that long ago an ambassadorship to Eire was granted as a "reward for donations" >
In the other direction (the one you describe) most small poor countries can't afford to fill all their diplomatic posts, just a few in the most important places (to them). In which case if they have a citizen living resident in a country with an unfillable post and if that person wants the job (and isn't totally unsuitable) they can have it. Unpaid -- but there may be both social as well as buisness advantages --- and of course one might be expected to make a "donation" >
Have you not read Greene's "The Honoray Consul" >
Mike
e-mail:
stepbystpefarm mtdata.com
RE: LOL
19.09.2005 00:57
The point I was attempting to put across was that this is being offered by a commercial entity working with a government therefore it is being offered purely for the immunities involved and nothing more. I can see your point but my point was that these positions are in fact being exploited in many countries including the UK.
In the UK during 1998 there were 17 crimes reported which were dropped due to the suspect claiming diplomatic immunity. In 2002 there were 21 offences reported with steady increases in between. This shows a clear pattern of an increasing problem to our society.
These people are not diplomats nor do they have any duties or responsibilities, they are nothing more than businessmen who want a few tax reliefs and some special treatment from local authorities.
Let's look at a specific example. In August of 2004 in the UK a man was arrested for sexually assaulting an 11 year old girl. He was later released without charge because he happened to have diplomatic status issued by the Saudi government.
I am fully aware of the sale of diplomatic status to wealthy individuals by western governments and I couldn’t care less if it was simply being used to achieve a superior “status” in the local society but the fact that its being used to commit crime is a problem that cannot be ignored simply because its considered commonplace.
In addition to this the price is incredibly low. This is just going to attract people.
I fully agree with you and am fully aware of the issues you raise but my point was on a completely different angle of this issue.
Ben Christian
e-mail:
voyageruk@gmail.com
Diplomatic immunity: limits and barriers
17.10.2005 14:26
while I understand that this wasn't your main contention, I'd still like to emphasize, like the earlier poster, that selling ambassadorships is absolutely nothing new under the sun, and indeed standard procedure for big political party donors in, amongst others, the United States, where even top level diplomatic postings like ambassadorships to the Court of St. James (ie, London), Paris and Berlin etc go to US non-career diplomats, for example see this NEWSWEEK article, "The Price of an Ambassadorship":
Btw, there have been several examples throughout history where for whatever reasons countries have chosen non-nationals to represent them abroad, eg for many years Saudi Arabia was represented at the United Nations by an ambassador of Lebanese nationality, who was provided with Saudi official papers only for the duration of his posting.
As an aside, running an embassy definitely isn't more complicated for a decently educated person with good generalistic capabilities than building up a successful business as many of today political appointees did prior to becoming ambassadors, also, they have the professional advice of career diplomats at their disposal anyway.
However, now to your point, it's highly important to understand that diplomatic immunity by absolutely no means offers up the opportunity to live a life running dubious, or maybe even criminal business ventures, perhaps without even paying taxes.
The reasons why this won't work are these: first of all, all diplomats accredited to a host country are explicitly forbidden to engage in any kind of a commercial venture in the host country where they are posted, and, secondly, violation of the prohibition of commercial activity, or indeed the commitment of any other crime or relevant violation of the rules and laws of the host country, will lead to the diplomat in question being declared "persona non grata", ie he / she will be ordered to leave the country by a date to be set by the host countries foreign ministry, and after that date the diplomatic status of the diplomat in question is revoked, ie no longer applies should he / she choose to re-enter the country at a later date.
What's also important to realize is that most countries I'm aware of will only accept their own nationals representing a foreign country at home as "honorary consuls", and NOT as full fledged diplomats. Were for example a German citizen to, using your initial example, buy a full diplomatic posting from say Guyana to Germany, without informing the German officials that he has not renounced his German citizenship, he would be in immediate breach of the law, and, as a German national, he would not even have to be declared "persona non grata" and ordered to leave the country, as instead he would face immediate prosecution at home.
To sum up, you can buy yourself a diplomatic posting to a country NOT your own, but you cannot abuse that to commit shady business deals, and, additionally in most cases obtaining a full (ie non honorary consul) diplomatic posting to YOUR OWN country, without renouncing your INITIAL citizenship, is illegal in most countries anyway.
Cheers
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