Diplomats 'feel targeted’

Press, 23 July 1986, Page 9

Diplomats 'feel targeted’

PA Wellington Diplomats now believed they had become specific targets of Ministry of Transport drink-driving surveillance, the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, has said. “It’s perhaps unfair that lots of diplomats now feel themselves to be targeted. It’s a feeling that they have that we are perhaps being over-sensitive to

them,” he said. Mr Lange was commenting on an incident in which an American diplomat refused to take a breath test after being stopped at a Wellington checkpoint on July 12. The refusal was in accordance with his embassy’s policy, and he was driven home by a member of the police diplomatic protection squad.

A decision on the case is expected after a Ministry of Transport report is presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, Mr Lange said a preliminary report had shown the diplomat was almost “conspicuously competent" in following procedures, and had seemed not to be driving in any way that drew attention to himself.

In. serious cases, if diplomatic immunity is claimed, the Government can “expect” the withdrawal of the diplomat. Mr Lange said diplomats could not complain about being “picked on” when they could simply blow into a bag and dismiss any ideas that they might be exceeding blood-alcohol limits.