IRAQ: Private security contractors operating in Iraq on road to losing immunity

Under a new draft legislation, private security firms in Iraq will no longer enjoy legal immunity. The legislation was drafted in the wake of a deadly shooting involving U.S. firm Blackwater. Iraq's Interior Ministry has finished draft legislation that would end legal immunity enjoyed by private security contractors in the wake of a deadly shooting involving U.S. firm Blackwater, an official said on Tuesday (September 25). Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf told a news conference the draft law had been submitted to the State Shura Council, a body which vets legal language in drafts before they can be passed to parliament for debate. Iraq has said it would review the status of all security firms after what it called a flagrant assault by Blackwater contractors in which 11 people were killed while the firm was escorting a U.S. embassy convoy through Baghdad on Sept. 16. Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire without provocation. Blackwater says its guards reacted lawfully to an attack on a U.S. convoy. The shooting has incensed Iraqis who regard the tens of thousands of security contractors working in the country as private armies that act with impunity. At issue for many Iraqis is sovereignty, given that security firms have immunity from Iraqi law under a 2004 regulation written while Iraq was under U.S. administration following the toppling of Saddam Hussein the year before. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had vowed to freeze the work of Blackwater, which guards the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and prosecute its staff over the shooting he called a crime. But Iraq has since appeared to soften its stand. The government spokesman said this week that no action would be taken against Blackwater until after a joint investigation with U.S. officials. The U.S. embassy is conducting a separate inquiry into the circumstances of the shooting. Khalaf has previously said the draft law would give the ministry powers to prosecute the companies and to refuse or revoke contracts. A number of security firms do not have the proper registration to operate in Iraq, something they blame on bureaucratic delays and obstacles.

ITN Source | September 26, 2007

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