'Servile Europeans' Inflict Huge Insult on Bolivians (Izvestia, Russia)
"In decades of observing international relations, I cannot
remember such an outrageous case. Presidents of sovereign states have
international immunity, and presidential immunity has up to now been unswervingly
observed by U.N. members. ... It appears that without our noticing, a new age
of lawlessness has begun. The slavish servility of Western countries to the United
States is simply despicable. ... My God, these Europeans are obsequious sons of
bitches!"
Writer and
politician Edward Limonov on the incident involving
the Bolivia president’s plane.
On
the night of July 3, a plane carrying President Evo
Morales, which had already been airborne for three and a half hours, was forced
to land in Vienna, Austria - not where Evo Morales
was heading. Morales was outbound from us in Moscow, and flying back home to
Bolivia.
Then
the governments of France and Portugal abruptly refused permission for the
aircraft, with the president onboard, to fly over their territories. In the
event, it had to stop in Vienna to refuel, and figure out its onward route.
In
Vienna, the Austrians attempted to search Morales’ plane. According to some
press reports, they performed the search, but according others,
President Morales refused to allow it. As the plane was being serviced and the
Austrians contacted their European counterparts, Evo Morales proceeded to the waiting room of the Vienna airport.
To treat
presidents like this is unacceptable. This is how smugglers and drug dealers
are treated. It is their aircraft that are forced to land.
According
to French and Portuguese intelligence authorities, aboard the plane may have
been Edward Snowden, a young man and former employee of the CIA, and in recent
years, the National Security Agency.
Having
been declared a traitor and betrayer of national interests by the United States,
Snowden has been at Sheremetyevo Airport for the past
week. As we know, he flew in from Hong Kong and is trying to find a country
willing to grant him political asylum.
The
"betrayal of national interests" refers to the fact that Snowden exposed
to the global public massive surveillance conducted by the National Security
Agency, which included tapping phone conversations in Western European diplomatic
missions, among them the embassy of France.
Upon
learning of the systematic surveillance of his diplomats, French President
François Hollande let out a passionate Gallic snort, ordered an investigation
and suspended talks with the United States scheduled for this week. But look at
how the puppy’s habit of nuzzling up to the leg of its master the United States,
led France to take the crude and unusual step of violating international norms
and denying passage to the president of the sovereign nation of Bolivia. All on
suspicion that he was smuggling out of Russia Edward Snowden - a man who, incidentally,
stood up for France’s interests.
The
Portuguese, having gone through crisis after crisis, wish to curry favor with
Washington - so this was a natural reflex they had to follow.
Here
yet another player entered the scene - Spain.
Spain
had agreed to allow the Bolivia president's aircraft to overfly its territory.
However, after receiving intelligence that the plane hadn't been inspected in
Vienna, Spain made passage of the aircraft conditional upon inspection at a
Spanish airport.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Evo Morales is an Aymara
Indian by blood. He is Bolivia’s first pure-blooded indigenous leader in 400
years. The proud Indian president rejected a degrading inspection in Spain.
Thus he had to sit and wait at the Vienna airport waiting room for almost ten
hours.
After
several journalists fought their way through to him, he said that he had not
met Snowden in Moscow, that he had been in Moscow on an official state visit,
and that the behavior of European countries had been outrageous.
Bolivia's
permanent representative to the United Nations, SachaLlorenti, called the denial of overflight
rights by France, Portugal and Spain to the plane of Evo
Morales, the president of his country, an "act of aggression."
He
said that while they had received orders from Washington, the aforementioned
countries had violated the immunity of the president of Bolivia - putting his
life at risk. “A huge insult,” is how Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino described it.
I
wholeheartedly agree with the minister of Ecuador.
In
decades of observing international relations, I cannot remember such an outrageous
case. Presidents of sovereign states have international immunity, and
presidential immunity has up to now been unswervingly observed by United
Nations members.
It
appears that without our noticing, a new age of lawlessness has begun. The
slavish servility of Western countries to the United States is simply despicable.
The
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) has called
an urgent meeting on the incident involving the Bolivian president’s plane.
There are 17 states in UNASUR, and all of them are angry.
My
God, these Europeans are obsequious sons of bitches!
