When might becomes right

The New Indian Express First Published : 24 Feb 2011 10:32:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 25 Feb 2011 01:09:19 AM IST
The case of the ‘diplomat’ Raymond Davis grows more curious and more disturbing by the day. The world first heard of him on January 27 when he shot dead two men in Lahore he said were following him, ostensibly in self-defence, photographed them and called for help from the American consulate. That vehicle it sent ran over and killed an innocent civilian in the haste to get to Davis. But help came too late as he had been arrested by then. The entire incident had the feel of an operation gone wrong, and Davis seemed to fit the profile of a covert affairs specialist. But the US government claimed he had diplomatic immunity and demanded his release forthwith. Pakistani courts thought otherwise and jailed him. At present Davis is in judicial custody in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat prison charged with murder.
The US has called stridently for his release, with even President Obama joining the chorus (highly unusual), but it was notably vague about his precise duties until a British newspaper blew the whistle. Davis turns out to be a former special forces operative under contract with the CIA. Nevertheless, the US insists, he is a diplomat, and entitled to immunity under international conventions. The fact that he killed two men in cold blood, apart from causing a third death, appears to be a side issue. The fact that the Pakistani public is justifiably enraged also seems irrelevant to America’s mandarins as they solemnly invoke the sanctity of international guarantees. If ordinary Pakistanis accuse them of double standards they have good reason.
This is, after all, the same government that brushed aside all conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war after the invasion of Afghanistan and locked up hundreds of them without rights, recourse or redress in the stinking confines of Guantanamo Bay prison. Many are still in detention without a hearing. Some of them may be terrorists but they were captured in war and there are clear rules for their treatment. So if the White House could suspend the rules, surely, Islamabad, too, could do the same in the case of Raymond Davis. To deny that is to deny justice to the men he killed. If the US still gets its way in this sorry business, the only possible conclusion is that superpower muscle is the only right it recognises. All its calls for justice in the Middle East are just so much hot air.