Deadbeat Diplomacy

The Iranian minister stood at bay, staring down the muzzle of a gas pistol. The cold-eyed German behind the gun worked quickly and methodically. A spy caught in the act? A would-be assassin? No. All Hermann Reissmeier wanted was to smash a dozen windowpanes and thus "collect" an outstanding debt.

Reissmeier's invasion of the Iranian embassy last week was the latest incident in a private cold war between the citizens of Bonn and the West German capital's deadbeat diplomats. Reissmeier claimed the Iranians owed him $50 for his work in the embassy gardens. The Iranians took refuge in diplomatic immunity, and since Gardener Reissmeier could not collect legally, he took revenge in shattered glass.

Grocer's Gripe. Every capital in the world has its gripes about highhanded diplomats who use their immunity to avoid legal reckoning. In Bonn the problem is heightened by the fact that some 95 embassies, legations and missions are crammed into one of Europe's smallest, most provincial capitals. High-living diplomats do not ease the tensions with their late, loud parties and cosmopolitan ways. But what really throws the shopkeepers of Bonn into a xenophobic rage is the unpaid debts run up by diplomats--particularly those from nations receiving German economic aid.

An exasperated grocer claims it took him a year to collect a $50 debt from the Congolese embassy, and a Bonn moving company has been trying for three years to collect the balance of a $1,100 bill from the Saudi Arabians. When a landlord in nearby Remagen could not coax the rent from his South Korean tenants, he went to the Foreign Office and asked that the debt be covered by development aid money earmarked for Korea. The request was refused, but Foreign Office officials began worrying that deadbeat diplomacy might arouse enough adverse public opinion to damage their aid program.

A Thaw? Diplomats ride roughshod over Bonn's traffic laws. The city's narrow, choked streets--many dating from medieval times--allow little room for maneuvering, but cars with "O" plates (indicating the diplomatic corps) swing arrogantly into "no parking" zones and further complicate the traffic problem. Police rarely ticket diplomatic drivers, knowing that they will use their immunity to avoid answering the summons. When a British correspondent had the bumper ripped off his car by a speeding Ivory Coast diplomat passing on the wrong side, the police waved on the African at the flash of his passport, but corralled the newsman as a "trouble maker." Realizing that immunity can be abused, British Ambassador Sir Frank Roberts has forbidden his staff to in voke it in traffic cases. More of the same could perhaps bring about a thaw in Bonn's little cold war.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.