Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA
Police officers arrest a supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
By NBC News wire services
LONDON --?Protesters chanting slogans in support of Julian Assange tussled with police outside the Ecuadorian?Embassy in London on Thursday after Britain said it might enter the building to detain the WikiLeaks founder holed up inside.
A Reuters reporter saw at least three protesters being dragged away by police as the crowd shouted: "You are trying to start a war with Ecuador." About 20 officers were outside the embassy trying to push away the crowd of about 15 supporters.
Earlier,?Britain told Ecuador that giving Assange asylum would not change a thing and that it might still revoke the diplomatic status of Quito's embassy.
The Ecuadorian?government, which said it would announce its decision on Assange's asylum request on Thursday at 7 a.m. Ecuadorean time (8 a.m. ET), has said any attempt to remove the diplomatic status of its embassy would be considered a "hostile and intolerable act."
"It is too early to say when or if Britain will revoke the Ecuadorian?embassy's diplomatic status," a Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters by telephone.
"Giving asylum doesn't fundamentally change anything," the spokesman said, adding that Britain had a legal duty to extradite Assange to Sweden,?which wants to question him about allegations of rape and molestation.
PhotoBlog: More images from the scene as protesters scuffle with London police
The former Australian hacker, who incensed U.S. government officials by publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and Iraq and Afghan war dispatches in 2010, took refuge in the embassy on June 19 to avoid extradition to Sweden. He exhausted all appeals after a 17-month legal battle.?
"Throughout this process we have drawn the Ecuadorians' attention to relevant provisions of our law," the British Foreign Office wrote on its Twitter account?early Thursday.
Ecuador: UK threatened to break Wikileaks' Assange out of embassy
"We are still committed to reaching a mutually acceptable solution," it tweeted.
Martin Alipaz / EPA file
A composite file photo of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, left, and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, right.
'Colonial times are over'
Quito bristled at the threat.
"We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over," Ecuadorean?Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in an angry statement after a meeting with President Rafael Correa.
Ecuador president: I've not yet decided on asylum for Assange
"The move announced in the official British statement, if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly, hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty, which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way," Patino told reporters.
London had warned Ecuador in writing earlier in the day that a 1987 British law permits it to revoke the diplomatic status of a building if the foreign power occupying it "ceases to use land for the purposes of its mission or exclusively for the purposes of a consular post." Its Foreign Office said later in statement that it is Britain's "obligation to extradite Mr. Assange."
Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com
Ecuador, whose government is part of a left-leaning bloc of nations in South America, called for meetings of regional foreign ministers and the hemispheric Organization of American States to rally support in its complaint against Britain.
British officials have vowed not to grant Assange safe passage out of their country. They say they will arrest him the moment he steps foot outside the embassy.
WikiLeaks' Assange defiant over UK police request
But they had not previously suggested publicly that?they might strip the embassy of its diplomatic inviolability.
The Associated Press found no record of that law ever being used to justify forcible entry into an embassy. Under the 1961 Vienna Convention, diplomatic posts are considered the territory of the foreign nation.
NBC News partner ITV News's coverage of Assange: 'Not going near a police station soon'
In a statement, WikiLeaks accused Britain of trying to bully Ecuador into denying Assange asylum.
"A threat of this nature is a hostile and extreme act, which is not proportionate to the circumstances, and an unprecedented assault on the rights of asylum seekers worldwide," it said Wednesday.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
?
?
?
?
lindsay lohan playboy cover lindsay lohan playboy cover shooting at virginia tech shooting at virginia tech harry morgan john lennon death john lennon death
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.