>Could someone explain to the more dense of us the political import
>of the fact that a Finnish UN worker was in a hit and run accident
>in East Timor?
I thought the following remark concerning "a possible lynching mentality" was politically revealing: "The man is accused of hitting a 72-year-old East Timorese woman on a motorbike when driving his car in the capital, Dili, on Oct. 21. He did not stop and was picked up by police 15 minutes later. Hyvonen said many international organizations and embassies recommend their workers in foreign countries don't stop if involved in an accident 'because of a possible lynching mentality'" ("Finn Accused of Killing East Timorese Returns Home," AP Worldstream 2 February 2001). That's how imperial soldiers & bureaucrats think of colonized natives (international bureaucrats are not likely to be advised to commit a hit and run in the USA & other rich nations).
More generally speaking, unilateral extraterritorial rights have been prerogatives of imperial nations. Earlier in the history of modern imperialism, "In the 19th cent. Western powers, often through coercion, secured unilateral extraterritorial rights for their citizens in China, Egypt, Japan, Morocco, Persia, Siam, and Turkey in the belief that these 'uncivilized' states were incapable of establishing justice. Consequently the Western consul was assigned to handle all civil and criminal cases involving his countrymen. Extraterritoriality of this type was strongly resented as an infringement of sovereignty and was abolished in Japan in 1899, in Turkey in 1923, and in Egypt in 1949. In China opposition to extraterritoriality was but one phase of resistance to foreign control, which included the treaty port system and territorial concessions in the major cities" (at <http://www.bartleby.com/65/ex/extrater.html>). Okinawans and other peoples who live in places where the U.S. military has been stationed have suffered from the unilateral extraterritorial rights enjoyed by it & its personnel.
With the Progress of the Empire, we have & will be seeing an increasing demand for unilateral extraterritorial rights for a horde of peace-keepers, international bureaucrats, etc.
Yoshie