[News] Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan07192007.html

July 19, 2007


Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan


Have Gun, Will Travel

By CONN HALLINAN

Widespread use of mercenaries in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Latin America 
by the Bush Administration has drawn the attention of the United 
Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries, according to 
upsidedownworld.com.

"We have observed that in some cases the employees of private 
military and security companies enjoy an immunity which can easily 
become impunity," says Jose Luis Gomez del Pardo, chair of the UN 
Working Group, "implying that some states may contract these 
companies in order to avoid direct legal responsibilities."

The Working Group found that mercenaries were recruited from 
throughout Latin America and then flown to Ecuador to train at the 
huge U.S. base at Manta. Others were trained in Honduras at a former 
training camp used during the Reagan Administration's war against the 
Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

According to the Working Group, mercenaries working for a subsidiary 
of an Illinois-based company, Your Solutions Inc., suffered 
"irregularities in contracts, harsh working conditions, wages 
partially paid or unpaid, ill-treatment and isolation and lack of 
basic necessities such as medical treatment and sanitation."

A major reason for using private security companies is that they are 
not subject to Congressional oversight.

Jeffrey Shipper, who worked at Manta for DynCorp, told the Los 
Angeles Times that a major reason for using Latin American 
mercenaries was that, "The State Department is very interested in 
saving money on security now. Because they're driving the prices 
down, we're seeking Third World people to fill the positions."

While most American and British mercenaries earn up to $10,000 a 
month, Latin Americans get $1,000. Last summer, dozens of former 
Colombian soldiers went on strike in Baghdad because Blackwater USA, 
a major security firm, promised them $4,000 a month, but paid them only $1,000.

According to the Financial Times, there are hundreds of Mercenaries 
from Colombia, Ecuador and Chile working in Baghdad, Kirkuk and 
Hilla. Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Study estimates that 
there are 50,000 mercenaries working in Iraq, making them the second 
largest armed contingent after the U.S.

Cheap wages are only one of the ways that the security companies 
increase their profit margin. Because the firms are private they 
don't have to operate with safeguards. Blackwater's flight BW61 out 
of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan is a case in point.

The plane- flying during the day in clear weather-was carrying mortar 
shells and soldiers when it hit a mountain peak last November, 
killing everyone on board. The pilots had been in Afghanistan less 
than two weeks.

"This was infinitely worse than any armed forces flight would have 
been. It [a military flight] would have had triple redundancy, with 
checklists," the lawyer for the families of the passengers told the 
New York Times. Even though the plane was unpressurized and flying at 
14,000 feet, neither of the pilots was wearing an oxygen mask.

The Americans are not the only ones recruiting mercenaries. Over 
1,000 Fijians work in Iraq for the British company Global Risk 
Strategies. According to Jone Dakuvula, the director of Citizens 
Constitutional Forum, a non-governmental public education 
organization, many Fijians who have gone to Iraq have never been 
paid, but can't come home because their passports have been impounded.

Dakuvula says that high unemployment in rural areas is the main 
impetus for signing up to go to Iraq. According to Dakuvula, many 
Fijians come home wounded and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress to 
find there are no medical or psychological resources.

Iraq is now a major source of foreign exchange for the Pacific 
nation. Personal remittances have climbed from $50 million in 1999 to 
over $300 million in 2005, or seven percent of Fiji's GDP.

Whether it is Brits or Yanks hiring the mercenaries makes little 
difference. Getting other people to die for you is cheap and 
politically safe. The body bags and the maimed return to places most 
Americans and British will never see or think about.

Conn Hallinan is an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a winner of 
a Project Censored Award, and did his PhD dissertation on the history 
of insurrectionary organizations in Ireland.




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