The Straight Dope on Diplomatic Pouches

A Staff Report by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board

Is there such a thing as a diplomatic pouch?

20-Dec-2005

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The diplomatic bag is part of the international law of diplomatic relations. Diplomatic relations law is based on two fundamental principles--necessity and reciprocity. States need to have embassies in other states, and they fear that if they abuse other states' embassies, their own will be subjected to similar mistreatment.

Modern diplomacy dates from the 15th century, when Italian city-states began exchanging resident ambassadors. But references to the diplomatic bag are sparse until the late 18th century--if the bag existed before then, its inviolability wasn't respected. In the 15th through late 18th centuries, couriers bearing secret communications between ambassadors and their sovereigns were often intercepted, although historians Linda and Marsha Frey describe this as a "violation of ambassadorial privilege." Diplomatic bags seem to have found firmer footing by the end of the 18th century. Jeremy Bentham used the bag during the French Revolution to get radical writings to Jacobin leaders around 1793; around the same time a watchmaker named Breguet used his good friend Talleyrand's diplomatic bag to distribute his watches across Europe.

Initially the diplomatic bag existed as a matter of customary international law, but the doctrine is now codified in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961). Signed by over 150 states, including the U.S., the VCDR restates the law of diplomatic bags in Article 27. Section 27(3) says: "The diplomatic bag shall not be opened or detained." Section 27(4) says: "The packages constituting the diplomatic bag must bear visible external marks of their character and may contain only diplomatic documents or articles intended for official use." According to the U.S. Department of State, "This means that the words 'Diplomatic Bag' (or 'Pouch') must be clearly visible and displayed in English on the outside of the diplomatic bag. The diplomatic bag must also bear the seal of the government to which it belongs. This seal may be a lead seal that is attached to a tie that closes the bag, or a seal printed on the fabric of the diplomatic bag, or an ink seal impressed on the detachable tag." The department says that packages so marked are exempt from detention, inspection, or X-ray. Such packages need only be described as "diplomatic pouch" on advance air manifests.

Any container can be a diplomatic bag--there are no limitations on size or shape. The Soviet Union tested the limits of this rule in 1984 when it claimed that a nine-ton tractor trailer was a diplomatic bag. As Chuck Ashman and Pamela Trescott tell the story in their book, Diplomatic Crime: "The white Mercedes truck bearing the blue Cyrillic letters reading Sovtransavto across its side tried to cross into Switzerland . . . The three Soviets driving the truck put off a request for inspection." The Swiss were not amused. "Though the Vienna Convention does not specify any size limitation for the bag, Swiss officials said they considered 450 pounds to be the maximum allowable size." The truck wound up in West Germany where Soviet officials permitted West German authorities to inspect the truck's contents: 207 crates, which themselves constituted diplomatic bags and were not inspected.

The bag has been abused from time to time. For instance, in the 1984 Dikko incident, a former Nigerian minister was kidnapped in London and placed in a crate to be flown to Nigeria. With him in the crate was another man who was conscious and equipped with drugs and syringes. The kidnappers were hiding in another crate.

And there are plenty more where that came from:

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http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdiplomaticpouch.html

in Kangeroo COurts ?