![]() ![]() The 1987 Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking drew the attention of the International Law Commission (hereinafter “ILC”) to the danger of abuse of the diplomatic bag for carriage of illegal drugs ( Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1988, vol. Article 27.4 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (hereinafter “VCDR”) provides that the diplomatic bag may contain only “diplomatic documents or articles intended for official use”, but compliance cannot be verified since article 27.3 provides that the bag “shall not be opened or detained” – and the order of the two paragraphs was deliberately designed to avoid any suggestion that the protection given to the bag was conditional on compliance as to its contents. Concern over use of the bag for smuggling drugs and prohibited goods was long-standing but was greatly increased by notorious incidents where the bag was used to transfer weapons (London, in 1984, following the shooting of a policewoman from the Libyan diplomatic mission), a suspected spy (Rome, in 1964, where a drugged suspect spy was discovered by opening an Egyptian bag) and an ex-Minister suspected of corruption (London Stansted Airport, 1984, where a crate considered not to be a diplomatic bag, as it lacked official seals but was about to be loaded onto a government plane bound for Nigeria, was discovered to contain the kidnapped and drugged ex-Minister wanted for trial in Lagos). ![]() ![]() In the late nineteen-eighties there was – at least among developed countries – great public concern over the abuse of diplomatic privileges and immunities, and in particular, abuse of the protection from scrutiny given by international law to the diplomatic bag. ![]()
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