The decision came despite the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, apologising for the deaths in an attempt to prevent the expulsion of the American firm involved, Blackwater USA.
Staff of other foreign companies - believed to number up to 180,000 personnel - may now face restrictions or even expulsion.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said today: "It is necessary to review the status of local and foreign private security companies working in Iraq according to what is suitable with Iraqi laws."
Mr al-Dabbagh said the cabinet had confirmed the interior ministry's decision to withdraw Blackwater's licence, launch an investigation and ensure all those who attacked civilians were held accountable.
"The company should respect Iraqi laws and the dignity of the citizens," he said.
Eight Iraqi civilians were killed and 13 wounded in Mansour, Baghdad, when shots were fired from a US state department convoy on Sunday.
Brigadier-general Adam-Karim Khalaf, an interior ministry spokesman, said that foreign security contractors opened fire after mortar rounds landed near the convoy. "They opened fire randomly at citizens," he said.
........
Under a law issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority before Iraq regained sovereignty in June 2004, the companies have immunity from Iraqi prosecution.
The private security firms have proven controversial and many Iraqis view them as trigger-happy. US soldiers can face court martial if accused of unprovoked assaults or over-reaction, although the ratio of those convicted is low. But the law in relation to private security firms remains vague.
Source: The Guardian. Full story available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2171904,00.html
About bloody time. I still don't see how 'civilian' security firms can operate as if they were military personnel but without any of the legal constraints or oversight to which the military is usually subject. The whole security contractor issue has always seemed dubious to me at best, unethical and dangerous at least, and criminal at worst. Perhaps now there will be a little more open discussion of the matter.
2 comments:
I second that. About time.
Oh, and just in case anyone didn't know, in his final days in office Paul Bremmer decreed that US security firms would be immune from prosecution under Iraqi law. So that means that the only authority over these groups is the US, but no one seems to know for sure who specifically that authority is. State Department? Pentagon? Dick Cheney? The questionable ethics of employing these groups aside, if the US is going to use them shouldn't we have to clearly state who is responsible for them and what sets of laws and regulations they are required to abide by? Sheesh!
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