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Last revised: December 31, 1998

FOREIGNERS BEWARE! If by happenstance you are unfortunate enough to be accosted and arrested by a law enforcement agency in the United States of America, you should not expect to be advised of your right to contact your national consul, nor should you expect the law enforcement authority to inform your consul of your detention.

Ignorance of these rights, supposedly guaranteed to you under the provisions of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, could be fatal. In 1998, at least two foreign citizens have been put to death by state executioners in the U.S.; men who were never afforded the right to contact their consul for advice or assistance at the time of their arrests.

Amnesty International has identified at least 70 foreign nationals on death rows in America who were never advised of their Vienna Convention rights at the time of their arrest, and these human beings may have suffered irreparable harm as a result of the deliberate violation of their rights by U.S. law enforcement agents and prosecutors.

These 70 capital cases may well represent the tip of the iceberg of abuse of foreign citizens in the U.S. I believe there are thousands of non-condemned foreign nationals being held in U.S. prisons and jails who were never informed of their rights under the Vienna Convention.

The Joseph Stanley Faulder case in Texas is illustrative of the reason why U.S. law enforcement officials do not want you to have access to your government officials in a time of personal crisis. Mr. Faulder was held incommunicado for four days while Texas authorities coerced a confession out of him; a confession later quashed as being illegally obtained. Faulder, a Canadian citizen, I assume could at least speak English, so he may (or may not) have understood the Texas interrogators.

However, Angel Francisco Beard, a Paraguayan citizen executed on 14 April 1998 by the State of Virginia, and Jose Villerfuerte, a Honduran citizen executed by the State of Arizona on 22 April 1998, as well as Jaturun Siripongs, a Thai national facing imminent extermination by the State of California, may well have benefited from the services of a translator during the initial stages of their arrest and questioning. A translator could have been provided to them by their respective national consuls, had they been rightfully informed of their individual right to contact their consul and/or had law enforcement agents informed their consuls of their detention, as provided for under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which was ratified by the United States Senate nearly 30 years ago.

These are rights, I might remind U.S. citizens who travel abroad, that extend to them should they run afoul of some foreign law enforcement agency. These are rights that the United States government demands for its citizens abroad, which might be why the U.S. Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, has attempted to intervene in the cases of Beard and Faulder. She may well recognize the danger that continued violations of the Vienna Convention by U.S. law enforcement agencies could pose for United States citizens. The old adage of "what goes around comes around" could prove just as fatal for Americans in foreign countries, as it has for foreign nationals in the United States of America.

The Beard execution went forward despite Secretary Albright's appeal to the Governor of Virginia and the issuance of a request for a stay of execution by the International Court of Justice, The Hague. Foreigners should not rely on the much-touted United States Supreme Court for relief or for recognition of their treaty rights, as it has in effect deemed this type of human rights abuse harmless and/or the issue has been barred from litigation by judicial gymnastics.

Foreign citizens can look forward to more of their countrymen being killed by U.S. authorities despite a recent report by a United Nations Special Rapporteur finding that there is a "significant degree of unfairness and arbitrariness" in capital crime prosecutions and executions in the United States. They will see more of their fellow human beings gassed, electrocuted and put to death by lethal injections, despite the United Nations Human Rights Commission's resolution of April 13, 1998 calling for a moratorium on all executions.

The United States of America has a long history of treaty violations under its belt, just ask any Native American (Indian). So do not expect them to abide by any treaty you sign with them. It is time for the citizens of the world to unite and ostracize the United States from the world of nations!

If you would care to comment, you may write to:

Steven King Ainsworth
C-13201 4-EB-81-L
San Quentin Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974

Send Email to Charla Greene at Welcome to Hell

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