Govt dithering on anti-mercenary regulation
Wednesday, 30 Jul 2008 11:23
Govt dithering on anti-mercenary regulation
The government commitment to regulating the booming industry in private security contractors operating in war zones across the world has been called into question by activists.
Campaign group War on Want say the government has made a sudden U-turn on the subject, with earlier assurances of regulation suddenly going cold.
"Early in the year we were getting noises from the Foreign Office saying they'd taken on board our campaign," a spokesman told
politics.co.uk.
"We had meetings at the Foreign Office and it looked like it was going ahead. Then suddenly it all went quiet."
War on Want then launched a freedom of information request to discover what the government had been planning and found out consultations on the subject had indeed been planned, but that nothing was now happening.
"The freedom of information request shows that far from going quiet the government was making formal steps to launch a consultation for regulation," the spokesman continued.
"But nothing happened.
"Maybe its from John Hutton [business secretary] who made a speech saying the period of regulation is over, or the military complaining of overstretch, or even just a basic belief in privatisation.
"There's all this pressure mounting, so what's holding it up?"
Recent events – specifically in Iraq – have pushed the United Nations, British MPs and even the industry itself to call for some sort of decisive action from the Foreign Office, but David Miliband's department has so far failed to unveil any plans.
MPs on the foreign affairs committee recently described Mr Miliband's failure to act "unacceptable", expressing dismay at the absence of legislative proposals in the government's draft legislative programme.
Last month a Panorama film on the BBC showed an incident where mercenaries working for British private security group Erinys International fired their guns on a taxi in Kirkuk, Iraq.
In came in the same month as the death of two Iraqi women at the hands of mercenaries for Australian company Unity Resources Group.
But neither incident compares with the behaviour of mercenaries working for American firm Blackwater, who killed 17 Iraqi civilians in September of last year.
But with the government still committed to two unpopular wars, morale in the armed forces at an all-time low and the political consequences of troop deaths weighing heavily on ministers' mind, the chances of a radical departure from the use of private contractors remains unlikely.