I recently posted about the American consular employee who shot and killed two Pakistani men in Lahore. According to Reuters, the Lahore High Court has ruled that the American will remain in custody in Pakistan until he stands trial for murder.
The original questions raised by the bizarre occurrence have yet to be answered, and more have grown alongside them. Pakistani officials have identified the man as Raymond Davis; the American embassy has said this is incorrect. No one has yet explained what "Davis" was doing in Pakistan. In the wake of the shooting, the American embassy referred to him as a "diplomatic employee." Today, they are calling him a "diplomat," a title that carries with it diplomatic immunity. Pakistani police insist that the man was not carrying a diplomatic passport, nor was he driving a car with diplomatic plates. America wants him released, the court has refused.
The questions are disturbing, the answers potentially disastrous for both America's and Pakistan's aspirations in the region. First of all, why was "Davis" not carrying a diplomatic passport or driving an embassy vehicle? The embassy has not refuted the statements of the Pakistani police. Secondly, it is highly irregular, and ill advised, for diplomats to travel alone in Lahore, yet Davis did just that--even though he was going to an ATM, an act that was bound to attract robbers. Thirdly, most diplomats are unarmed, depending upon the agreements made by their home country and their assigned country. In the case of Pakistan, foreign diplomats are reportedly banned by a three-month-old law from carrying any firearms outside of the consulate.
The issue of American diplomats carrying arms in Pakistan is not a new one. The debate has rankled both American and Pakistani officials with increasing urgency as the "war on terror" continues. American officials sometimes cite increasing threats to their safety as justification for bearing arms. Pakistani police describe embarrassment at the fact that American diplomats flout their laws with impunity.
It is not just about guns, but sovereignty and respect. American diplomats have reportedly traveled in cars with illegal tags, and have traveled beyond their agreed-upon boundaries, all the while protected by diplomatic immunity. Pakistani citizens have chafed more and more under these humiliating and frightening showdowns, coming to feel that between the drone attacks and armed diplomats, they count for little to the US--whose presence places Pakistan in a difficult position in the region.
The spectre of Blackwater looms over the discussion. Now called Xe, LLC, the company has undergone cosmetic surgery to repair its PR, which was damaged badly by its murderous and deceitful record in Iraq. It is difficult to mention Davis without also mentioning Andrew Moonen, the Blackwater USA employee who drunkenly killed one of the Iraqi VP's guards. In that case, also, the US State Department attempted to keep the killer's identity from being revealed. Both men reportedly favored a Glock 9 mm pistol.
Pakistanis were already concerned that a company like Blackwater would come in alongside the American diplomatic corps, well before Davis and his colleagues managed to kill three Pakistani civilians that day. The facts at hand imply that Davis has given flesh to their fears: he had no diplomatic passport; he was driving alone, unlike regular diplomats in Lahore; he was armed. And most damning of all, he attempted to flee the scene, as did those who ran down an innocent bystander in their quest to aid him in his time of distress. None of this speaks of a man who enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
America is demanding that Mr. Davis be released. Pakistanis are pushing for him to face trial. America needs to look long and hard about what it will mean to its relationship with Pakistan if it continues with its demand. Pakistanis have not likely forgotten the hubris and privilege with which Blackwater USA was turned loose upon the people of Iraq, or that Blackwater's morale was of greater value to the American security apparatus than were Iraqi lives. It would be arrogance of the highest, most foolish order if Americans did forget.
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