After intensive diplomatic pressure failed to secure release of American citizen, Raymond Davis, - who says he killed two young motorcycle riders in self-defense -- Washington has now threatened to cut financial aid to its client government in Islamabad.
Three
members of the House of Representatives drove home the point on a visit to Pakistan,
telling Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani starkly that the US Congress was
working on its budget and looking for areas to cut.
"It is imperative that they release him and there is certainly the
possibility that there would be repercussions if they don't,"
Representative John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, told reporters on his return. "It's
entirely possible that a member of Congress would come down and offer an
amendment to cut funding for Pakistan
based on their detaining Davis,"
Kline added.
At the same time, Howard "Buck" McKeon, the House Armed Services Committee chairman, said that, as the House considers various spending bills, efforts could be made to cut funds for Pakistan.
Congress in 2009 approved a five-year, $7.5-billion aid package meant to build schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions as Pakistan ended a decade of military rule. In October, the Obama administration proposed another $2 billion in assistance for Pakistan's military, often seen as the key power center in the country.
Raymond
Davis shot two men on January 27 in Lahore, the
second largest city of Pakistan.
A third Pakistani was run over and killed by a US
consulate vehicle that had come to assist Davis.
US Consulate in Lahore has so far declined to hand over the driver of the
car to the police despite repeated requests from the Punjab
provincial government.
Lahore High
Court last week extended Davis'
remand for 15 days and ordered the government to place his name on the
"exit control list" to prevent him from leaving the country. Chief
justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry said the court would decide later if David was
eligible for diplomatic immunity.
Diplomatic pressure on Pakistan
government
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has taken up the issue of release of Raymond Davis with President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Clinton raised this matter during her telephonic conversation with Zardari last week and also when she met General Kayani on the sidelines of the Munich conference over the weekend, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said.
Tellingly,
Hillary Clinton declined to meet Pakistan's
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the weekend conference in Munich to show
displeasure over the case.
President
Zardar's government has taken the plea that "the matter is before the judiciary
and let us wait and respect it' to decide the fate of Davis,
but Washington
is not ready to buy this line of defense.
"Zardari was quite clearly told by US that his government had no other choice
but to abide by its obligation under international and Pakistani law to recognize
his (Davis')
diplomatic immunity and immediately release him. The US citizen's continued detention is
a gross violation of international law. The illegally detained diplomat enjoys
diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations
(1961)", The News, a leading English newspaper quoted diplomatic sources as
saying.
Row over the diplomatic
status of Raymond Davis
Washington , meanwhile, stresses
that if the Pakistan Foreign Office had issued certification to their citizen
when requested and in time, this matter would neither have been politicized nor
prolonged.
The US
government maintains that after notifying the Foreign Office about the status
of Raymond Davis in January 2010, they as in most cases did at that time not
need certification. As the sending state they had the right to categorize Davis and since there was no objections received from the Pakistan
government the matter lay at rest.
"The certification at this stage is needed from the Foreign Office because we
have a US citizen who is
detained and this certification has to be sent to the Punjab government for
immunity and release of the US
citizen. We want to resolve this matter," Courtney Beale, spokesperson at the
US Embassy told The News.
Investigative
journalist of The News, Ansar Abbasi quoted the Foreign Office sources as
saying that official documents have proved that Raymond Davis is not an
accredited US diplomat but
is a "non-diplomatic staff" of the US embassy.
The source
said the Foreign Office, which is preparing a reply for the Lahore High Court
on the matter, is presently pondering over the technical issue of whether the
limited-diplomatic immunity covers the kind of killing done by Raymond Davis,
who was carrying illicit weapon, used excessive and disproportionate use of
force, boarding a vehicle with fake registration number and possessing
objectionable material.
The
Foreign Office sources clearly say that there is a lot of difference between
absolute immunity and the limited-one that is given to non-diplomatic staff
like Raymond Davis.
Absolute immunity under the Geneva Convention, these sources said, is offered
to selected members of any foreign mission. The limited-diplomatic immunity is
given to otherwise non-entitled members of the mission but on the request of
the sending country.
He
explained that the government had issued diplomatic passports to a large number
of people including family members of the prime minister, but this did not mean
they could commit crimes in a foreign land and then claim immunity which cannot
be available to them in any case, he said.
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