- Invoke Vienna Convention On Diplomatic Privileges
The committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, has chided the Indonesian government over the arrest and manhandling of a Nigerian Consular officer serving at the country’s Embassy in Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
While censuring the action, the Committee has also threatened to invoke the Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which will declare everyone at the Indonesian Embassy in Abuja a persona non grata if the Indonesian government fails to give a candidate explanation on the manhandling of the Nigerian diplomat.
Earlier, The New Diplomat had reported that a Nigerian diplomat was manhandled and arrested by immigration officials on Saturday in front of his official quarters in the Asian country.
In a video, the Consular officer of Nigeria (name withheld) was seen being assaulted inside a car by three men said to be immigration officials. Two of the men were seen forcefully holding the Consular officer’s hands and legs, applying what looks like a torture technique, while the third man pinned the victim’s head to a car seat with his hand — somewhat akin to the circumstances that led to the death of George Floyd in the hands of Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.
Reacting to the horrific incident, the chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rt.Hon.( Dr.) Yusuf Buba Yakub has called on the Indonesian authorities to explain the violent treatment meted out to the Nigerian diplomat, while saying that the House of Representatives will leave no stone unturned in its bid to safeguard the interests of Nigerian Foreign Service Officers anywhere in the world.
Yakub also noted that any such arrest or questioning remains nothing but a gross abuse of the letters and spirit of Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961),which states inter alia that “Diplomats must not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. They are immune from civil or criminal prosecution.”
This was contained in a statement issued by Yakub’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Nkem Anyata-Lafia.
The statement partly reads, “Again, for us as a responsible Parliament, one that is responsive to the yearnings and security of those that we represent, this scene of humiliation from Indonesia is totally unacceptable, reprehensive, barbaric, inhumane, wicked and offensive to the intendment of Article 37 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which, unequivocally, states thus: ‘Diplomatic privileges and immunities guarantee that diplomatic agents (such as Nigeria’s Mr. Ibrahim in Indonesia) or even their immediate family: May not be arrested or detained * May not have theirs residences entered and searched May not be subpoenaed as witnesses * May not be prosecuted ‘, but alas, in this instant case the entirety of this Article has suffered a gross breach. All men and women of goodwill must stand up to condemn it for what it is and for what it portends for the future of Diplomacy across the globe.”
