Iraq cabinet okays law to end foreign firms’ immunity Reuters AlertNet | الحكومة العراقية تقر قانونا ينهي حصانة المتعاقدين الاجانب | Reuters
BAGHDAD, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Iraq’s cabinet approved a draft law on Tuesday that would end the immunity from prosecution of foreign security contractors and scrap a decree that Iraqis have complained is little more than a "licence to kill".
The law, which still needs to be passed by parliament, follows a Sept. 16 shooting incident involving U.S. firm Blackwater in which 17 Iraqis were killed. Blackwater said its guards acted lawfully, but the shooting enraged the Iraqi government.
"The cabinet has approved a law that will put non-Iraqi firms and those they employ under Iraqi law," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters after a cabinet meeting.
"Also, all immunity given to them under Order 17 is cancelled," he said.
Order 17 was a controversial decree issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004, in the days before it handed over control to an Iraqi government. The measure gave foreign contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq.
Iraq says there are more than 180 mainly U.S. and European security companies in Iraq, with estimates of the number of private contractors ranging from 25,000 to 48,000.
Many Iraqis see foreign security guards as little more than private armies who operate with impunity.
"There is an urgency in this matter," Dabbagh said, adding that the draft law had been referred to parliament.
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The draft law proposes tightening controls on foreign security firms by making them register and apply for a licence to work in Iraq, and for all guards to have weapons permits. That process has begun but has been mired in bureaucracy.
Contractors who enter Iraq with a U.S. Department of Defense identity card would in future have to apply for entry visas.
A potential source of friction, is the proposal to make foreign security guards and the convoys they are protecting subject to searches at Iraqi security force checkpoints.
That could cause problems, several security sources in Baghdad said, as high-profile convoys need to keep on the move, otherwise they become sitting targets. At present, many convoys do not stop at Iraqi checkpoints.
"They (Iraqi police and soldiers) will see this as a chance to bring Blackwater and other high-profile security teams down a peg," said one security contractor, who declined to be named.
The Iraqi government has said that security guards employed by Blackwater "deliberately killed" 17 Iraqis in last month’s shooting. It said an investigation had found no evidence that the guards had come under fire during the incident.
Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, which employs 1,000 people in Iraq to protect U.S. diplomats and other officials, told a U.S. Congressional hearing that his men had come under small-arms fire and "returned fire at threatenging targets".
The incident is the subject of multiple U.S. and Iraqi investigations. The Iraqi government says it wants Blackwater to pay $136 million in compensation to the victims’ families.
In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered tougher oversight of private guards in Iraq, including tighter rules on the use of force.
Reuters AlertNet - Iraq cabinet okays law to end foreign firms’ immunity
بغداد (رويترز) - قال علي الدباغ المتحدث باسم الحكومة العراقية لرويترز إن الحكومة وافقت يوم الثلاثاء على قانون يحرم شركات الامن الخاصة من الحصانة التي كانت تتمتع بها من المثول امام المحاكم في العراق.
وقال الدباغ لرويترز بعد الاجتماع ان الحكومة وافقت على قانون سيخضع الشركات غير العراقية ومن يعلمون فيها للقانون العراقي.
وصرح الدباغ بأن القانون الان سيحال الى البرلمان العراقي وانه سيسقط الحصانة التي منحت للشركات الاجنبية بمقتضى مرسوم مثير للجدل أصدرته السلطة المؤقتة بقيادة الولايات المتحدة عام 2004 .
كما سيخضع القانون الحراس الاجانب لعمليات تفتيش في نقاط التفتيش التابعة لقوات الامن العراقية ويجبرهم على ان يكون معهم ترخيص بحمل السلاح. كما سيوجب تسجيل شركات الامن الاجنبية العاملة في العراق.
وصدر القانون بعد سلسلة من حوادث اطلاق الرصاص التي تورط فيها حراس اجانب في مقدمتها حادث مقتل 17 عراقيا في حادث اطلاق نار في 16 سبتمبر ايلول في بغداد تورط فيه حراس شركة بلاكووتر الامنية الخاصة.
وأغضب الحادث الحكومة العراقية وأضر بالعلاقات مع واشنطن التي تقوم بمجموعة من التحقيقات في الحادث. وقالت بلاكووتر ان حراسها تصرفوا بشكل قانوني لحماية موكب دبلوماسي امريكي.
وبعد الحادث طالبت كوندوليزا رايس وزيرة الخارجية الامريكية بتشديد الرقابة على حراس الشركات الخاصة في العراق بما في ذلك تشديد أحكام اللجوء الى استخدام القوة.
ولشركة بلاكووتر الامنية الخاصة ومقرها نورث كارولاينا نحو 1000 موظف في العراق لتوفير الحماية للدبلوماسيين الامريكيين وباقي المسؤولين.
من مريم قرعوني
الحكومة العراقية تقر قانونا ينهي حصانة المتعاقدين الاجانب | Reuters.com
