IRAQ: EU Looking for Safe Entry
BRUSSELS, Mar 12 (IPS) - The European Union lacks “clear guidelines” for use of private security firms to protect its civil servants operating in Iraq, a new report has found.
The ‘outsourcing’ of military tasks to commercial companies has proven hugely controversial since the U.S. invaded Iraq five years ago. In September 2007, the Iraqi authorities blamed the U.S. security firm Blackwater for a gun battle in which 11 people died.
Allegations that Blackwater fired indiscriminately at civilians followed a litany of complaints that such firms, which also provide bodyguards to diplomats from European countries, have shown scant regard for human rights.
A report debated by the European Parliament Mar. 12 insisted that there should be transparency from EU governments about the use of these firms. Unless clear rules are established to cover the firms’ activities, “it will be extremely difficult for the European Parliament to agree to an expansion of the EU’s physical presence in Iraq,” the paper warned.
Over 800 million euros (1.2 billion dollars) has been pledged by the EU’s executive, the European Commission, to rebuilding Iraq since 2003. Yet the report alleges that the Union’s efforts “have not been successful in substantially improving the situation on the ground.”
Ana Gomes, the Portuguese Member of Parliament (MEP) who wrote the report, said she did not believe that Iraq needs more money but greater technical assistance to ensure its state functions and that there is greater freedom in its society.
Despite her demand for caution in the use of private security firms, she contended that the Union has a “golden opportunity to bring a positive contribution to the fate of Iraq and the fate of the entire region.”
Estimates of the death toll from the war vary widely. As the U.S. does not keep tabs on civilian casualties, the task of trying to gauge how many have died has fallen to scientific researchers and a number of non-governmental organisations.
One such group, Iraq Body Count, says that documented deaths caused by U.S.-led coalition forces, paramilitary and criminals since the invasion exceeds 89,000. Another, the U.S. campaign group Just Foreign Policy, suggests that the number of deaths attributable to the U.S. invasion could exceed one million.
Yet while Iraq is struggling to emerge from such a deadly conflict, the EU is deeply involved in talks aimed at boosting trade with the country. Four rounds of negotiations aimed at signing a trade and cooperation accord between the Union and Iraq have taken place so far.
Caroline Lucas, a British Green MEP, urged the Union to tread carefully in these talks.
Decrees issued by L. Paul Bremer, appointed by the Bush administration to run Iraq temporarily in 2003, privatised 200 state companies and allowed foreign firms to completely own Iraqi banks, mines and factories.
Accusing the U.S. of “privatising public property”, Lucas said that the aim of the EU should not be merely to win business for European firms but to “build up Iraqi companies, too.”
“There is a risk of the country becoming once again prey to outside influence,” she said.
The European Parliament also expressed concern about the plight of the 4.5 million people displaced by the war. Iraq has a population of 25 million.
Béatrice Patrie, a French Socialist, noted that this was “the biggest movement of people in that part of the world since 1948.”
About two million Iraqi refugees are now in Syria and Jordan. Patrie argued that the EU “should welcome some of the most vulnerable refugees” onto its territory.
Portuguese MEP Paolo Casaca stated that the EU’s support for refugees has been “woefully inadequate”.
“There are destitute people there who have no access to oil revenues,” he said. “These are people we must try to support.”
But Bastiaan Belder, MEP with the Dutch party Christian Union, distanced himself from calls for the EU to offer refuge to displaced Iraqis. “How realistic is it to ask governments to welcome in refugees?” he said.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European commissioner for external relations, said that the “security situation seems to be partly better” in Iraq as a result of a surge in U.S. troops and the ceasefire called by militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
But she added that the “number of deaths of Iraqi civilians still remains too high” and that recent incursions by Turkish troops into Northern Iraq — officially in response to attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — “contribute to complicating the situation.”
Janez Lenarcic, state secretary for European affairs with Slovenia, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said dialogue between Turkey and Iraq is important in order to “find an amicable solution and avoid conflict.”
British Liberal MEP Emma Nicholson, who is to chair a new parliamentary body responsible for relations with Iraq, said that the price of a stable Iraq is “worthy of our effort.” Iraq, she added, will border the European Union once Turkey is accepted into the EU fold. (END/2008)
IRAQ: EU Looking for Safe Entry
Indexed under: Economic disruption, EU, IPS, IPS Reports, Mercenaries, Refugees