War on Want has condemned the UK private military and security companies (PMSCs), ‘operating with impunity in Iraq’.
The charity issued a briefing paper Getting Away With Murder yesterday, to coincide with the second annual conference of the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC).
The War on Want briefing says that while the US and Iraq are taking steps to regulate the ‘multi-billion pound industry employing 20,000 people in Iraq’, Britain is refusing to do the same.
The Foreign Office claims there are already binding rules governing PMSCs in Iraq and that it is not yet ‘agreed’ that regulation is appropriate, while the BAPSC says it favours ‘effective self regulation in partnership with the UK Government and international organisations’.
But War on Want says: ‘Self-regulation by the industry is not an option. Legislation must outlaw private military and security company involvement in all forms of direct combat and combat support understood in its widest possible senses.’
War on Want reports that the British government has spent £179 million on contracts with PMSCs in Iraq over the past three years, and £46 million during the same period in Afghanistan.
The report cites some shocking recent actions by PMSC mercenaries in Iraq.
‘On 16 September 2007, traffic at a busy crossroads in Baghdad turned into a violent bloodbath when mercenaries working for US PMSC Blackwater opened fire and killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
‘In November 2007 an Iraqi taxi driver was shot three times and killed by mercenaries working for DynCorp International, a private security company hired to protect American diplomats.
‘In October 2007 mercenaries from Australian firm Unity Resources Group killed two Iraqi women in an attack that saw 40 shots fired at their car.
‘In the same month mercenaries working for UK group Erinys International opened fire on a taxi near Kirkuk, wounding three civilians. Erinys is also being sued in the US for the death of a US soldier hit by an Erinys convoy in Iraq in 2005. This is the first case of its kind.
‘In February 2007 a Blackwater sniper shot and killed three Iraqi guards working for the Iraqi Media Network from the roof of the Ministry of Justice.
‘In July 2006 a Triple Canopy mercenary opened fire on two Iraqi civilian vehicles in Baghdad and left the occupants for dead.
‘In November 2005, a trophy video was published on the internet showing employees of UK company Aegis Defence Services randomly shooting civilian cars from out of the back of their vehicle on the road to Baghdad airport.’
The report concludes: ‘For Iraqis there is no distinguishable difference between private armies and foreign troops, except that the mercenaries are operating with impunity.’
It says there is now an ‘urgent need to bring their activities under legal and democratic control’, including a ban on the use of mercenaries in combat.
War on Want say: ‘Iraq has turned the work of mercenaries into a multi-billion pound industry, and UK firms are amongst the biggest winners.’
Erinys International was granted a $100 million contract to guard oil installations and pipelines in Iraq.
In 2006, ArmorGroup saw revenues totalling $27 million.
In 2007 ArmorGroup won the UK government’s £20 million annual contract for security services in Afghanistan.
War on Want calls on the UK government to move towards legislation to control the PMSC sector as an urgent priority.
The trade unions must demand that these groups and their activities are made illegal.
