Privatising the Use of Force: Accountability and Implications for Local Communities

Summary

‘It is extraordinary dangerous when a nation begins to outsource its monopoly on the use of violence in support of its foreign policy or national security objectives.’

Former US Ambassador J. Wilson

INTRODUCTION

On 16 September 2007 the world media extensively reported the massacre perpetrated by the indiscriminate shooting of private security guards of the company Blackwater in a populated neighbourhood of Baghdad which resulted in the death of 17 civilians including children and more than 20 persons injured.

This was not the first time an incident such as this occurred in Iraq since the 2003 war and the occupation of the country by the Coalition forces. According to a memorandum prepared by a United States Congressional House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform2, in 163 out of the 195 escalation-offorce incidents in Iraq in the past two years involving employees of Blackwater, the guards had fired first. In 2007, 845 security guards were employed by Blackwater in Iraq. In 84 per cent of the cases the Blackwater guards were found to have acted unprovoked and had deliberately fired against Iraqi civilians. This represents an average of 1.4 shootings per week. However, according to an interview of a former Blackwater ‘private guard’ given to NBC News, his team composed of 20 guards averaged ‘four or five’ deliberate shootings a week (several times the number reported by the company).

Most of the crimes perpetrated against Iraqi civilians have been covered up and forgotten. The State Department of the United States reaction was primarily to ask Blackwater to make monetary payments rather than insist upon accountability or to investigate for possible criminal liability. The US government has been paying $ 1,222 per day for each ‘security specialist’ which amounts to almost half a million $ per year for each of them. Blackwater is not the only private military and security company which has been involved in such deliberate shootings against the Iraqi population, sometimes for entertainment. Videos on the Internet have spread showing what appear to be foreign mercenaries utilising Iraqi civilians as targets. Private security guards of other companies such as Aegis, Triple Canopy, Erinys and Unity Resource Group have also been involved. Despite these incidents and the thousands of private contractors passing through the country, only two individuals have been indicted.