Austrian plane search for leaker Snowden enrages Bolivia

Bolivia denounced the Austrian action as an act of aggression and violation of international law

Bolivia accused Austria of "kidnapping" its President, Evo Morales, on Wednesday after authorities searched his plane during a stop-over in Vienna on suspicion he was taking fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden to Latin America.

A senior Bolivian diplomat said the Austrians had acted at the bidding of the US, which has been trying to get its hands on Snowden since he revealed details of its secret surveillance programmes last month. "We're talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped," Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti Soliz, told reporters in Geneva.

The Bolivian plane, which was taking Morales home from an energy conference in Moscow, was stranded at Vienna airport for several hours after Portugal and France refused to allow it to fly through their airspace.

The search found that Snowden was not onboard and the plane eventually left Vienna about noon on Wednesday. The 30-year-old Snowden is believed to be still in the transit area of a Moscow airport, where he has been trying since June 23 to find a country that will offer him refuge from prosecution in the US on espionage charges.

The plane incident was the latest twist in a saga which has raised a furore in the US and abroad over the balance between privacy rights and national security.

Revelations of US surveillance on European countries have also strained trans-Atlantic relations.

France on Wednesday said free-trade talks between the European Union and the US should be delayed by two weeks given tensions over reports stemming from the Snowden case that Washington is spying on the 28-nation bloc.

Bolivian anger
Bolivia, which is part of a Venezuelan-led leftist alliance which has challenged US political and economic influence in Latin America, denounced the Austrian action as an act of aggression and violation of international law.

"We have no doubt that it was an order from the White House," ambassador Llorenti said. "By no means should a diplomatic plane with the president be diverted from its route and forced to land in another country." Bolivia will lodge a complaint at the United Nations.

Austria said however that Morales had agreed to a voluntary inspection of the plane. Deputy Chancellor Michael Spindelegger confirmed Snowden had not been on the plane. "Our colleagues from the airport had a look and can give assurances that no one is on board who is not a Bolivian citizen," Spindelegger told reporters at Vienna airport.

Bolivia is among more than a dozen countries where Snowden has sought asylum and Morales has said he would consider granting the American refuge if requested.

But his options have narrowed since he arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong with no valid travel documents after the US revoked his passport.

Five countries have rejected granting Snowden asylum, seven have said they would consider a request if made on their soil, and eight said they had either not made a decision or not received a request. US President Barack Obama has warned that an offer of asylum from a country would carry serious costs. Russian President Vladimir Putin is unwilling to send Snowden to the US, with whom Russia has no extradition treaty. But he is also reluctant to damage ties over a man for whom Putin, a former KGB spy, has little sympathy.

Intolerable
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was also in Moscow for the energy conference, said on Tuesday Snowden deserved the world's protection for divulging details of US spying. Maduro said he would consider any asylum application from Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency as a contractor in Hawaii.

In a move indicative of the international fall-out from the revelations, France called for a delay in talks between the European Union and the US on a free trade accord.

Government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said Paris did not want to halt the negotiations on a deal that could boost the EU and US economies by more than $100 billion each per year.

"On the other hand, it would seem wise to us to suspend them for a couple of weeks to avoid any controversy and have the time to obtain the information we've asked for," she said.

The European Commission in Brussels and Germany both said they wanted the first round of talks to start as scheduled on Monday in Washington.

The EU has demanded the US explain a German magazine report that Washington was spying on the bloc, calling such surveillance shocking if true. French President Francois Hollande said the alleged action was intolerable and could hinder US relations with Paris and the EU.