Subject: Re: Border conflict solved<br/>
Date: Feb 20, 2002 @ 18:09<br/>
Author: shocktm (&quot;shocktm&quot; &lt;andrew@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1470864963"><blockquote><span title="ireply">&gt; What is, by the way, the exact legal status of embassies? Do <br/>
 </span></blockquote>embassy <br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; premises entirely fall under the jurisdiction of the other <br/>
 </span></blockquote>country?  We <br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; surely don&#39;t consider them enclaves, or do we? Are embassies (the <br/>
 </span></blockquote>entire <br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; plot) off bounds to host country&#39;s police agencies? I have been <br/>
 </span></blockquote>told by <br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; someone that this is merely a de facto situation or policy, which <br/>
&gt; doesn&#39;t have any legal basis. Can anyone shed any light on this? <br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; -Pepijn<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>Embassies are jurisctical enclaves that are goverend by the Treaty of <br/>
Vienna and agreements between the host county & the guest county. <br/>
These agreements dictate the size of the embassy, where it is <br/>
located, and limits the size if the staff. <br/>
<br/>
Here in the US the embassy must comply with US fire codes but <br/>
everything else about the building is upto the guest country. A few <br/>
years ago Italy built a new embassy in Washington DC. The building <br/>
was built using the metric system and the embassy allows smoking <br/>
inside the building. Neither of these would be possible in any other <br/>
office building in Washington.<br/>
<br/>
Also in the past few years several embassies had fires. The DC Fire <br/>
department went in (with out formal permission IIRC) and put out the <br/>
fires without any problem.<br/>
<br/>
Another interesting thing happened when NATO bombed Serbia. The US <br/>
expelled the Serbian Embassy staff from the Washington Embassy (The <br/>
staff went to the UN Mission in New York City) and turned the embassy <br/>
over to Sweeden for safe keeping. Before the turn over the US Secret <br/>
Service and Diplomatic Police entered the Serbian Embassy to verify <br/>
that no one was there and that there was no fire hazards but could <br/>
not examine any documents or anything else in the embassy. The task <br/>
was carefully monitord and recored to show that the US was not spying.<br/>
<br/>
-Andrew</div>