Did Saleh violate international law?

In addition to antigovernment protesters, foreign diplomats no longer seem to be safe from pro-regime "demonstrators" in the Yemeni capital: Yemen‘s political crisis took a dramatic turn yesterday when armed loyalists of embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh surrounded an embassy, trapping the American and other ambassadors inside for hours until they apparently were flown out ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

In addition to antigovernment protesters, foreign diplomats no longer seem to be safe from pro-regime "demonstrators" in the Yemeni capital:

In addition to antigovernment protesters, foreign diplomats no longer seem to be safe from pro-regime "demonstrators" in the Yemeni capital:

Yemen‘s political crisis took a dramatic turn yesterday when armed loyalists of embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh surrounded an embassy, trapping the American and other ambassadors inside for hours until they apparently were flown out by Yemeni military helicopter.[…]

Saleh supporters massed outside the Emirati embassy, blocking two main entrances and at one point attacking a convoy bringing the GCC’s top mediator, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, to the compound, news agencies reported. Mobs surrounded other foreign embassies; the Chinese ambassador’s convoy also came under attack, according to news reports.

"Everybody is worried. We can’t leave the embassy," an unnamed Saudi diplomat told the Associated Press before the apparent helicopter rescue.

Saleh’s government will deny that it orchestrated the protests, but taking a look at the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which Yemen signed in 1986, it still appears that Yemen may be in violation:

1.The premises of the mission shall be  inviolable. The agents of  the receiving State may not enter them, except with  the consent of the head of the mission.

2.The  receiving State  is under  a special  duty  to  take  all  appropriate  steps  to protect  the  premises of  the  mission  against  any  intrusion  or  damage  and  to  prevent  any  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the mission or impairment  of its dignity.

3.The  premises  of  the  mission,  their  furnishings  and  other  property  thereon  and  the  means  of transport of the mission shall be immune  from  search, requisition, attachment or execution.

Even if the Yemeni government didn’t specifically order the seige of the Emirati embassy, it would be hard to argue that it took all appropriate steps to "prevent  any  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the mission or impairment  of its dignity" when it was Saleh’s own armed supporters who were doing the disturbing.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tag: Law

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