Iraq: Turned Into Thugland

By Foreign Security Guards

Outraged Iraqis condemn killings by foreign guards

by Salam FarajWed Oct 10, 1:04 PM ET

Outraged Iraqi authorities on Wednesday condemned the killing in Baghdad of two women by foreign security guards but the Australian-run firm that hired the contractors defended their actions.

"The government and the prime minister and everybody categorically condemns the actions of this company," the head of Baghdad security, General Qassim Mussawi, said in a statement.

Tuesday's shooting came just days after Iraq vowed to punish US firm Blackwater when a probe found that its guards opened "deliberate" fire in another incident in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 civilians.

Witnesses to the latest shooting, in Karrada neighbourhood, said a woman taxi driver mistakenly got too close to a convoy of Dubai-based Unity Resources Group (URG) and came under immediate gunfire by the guards.

The taxi driver, an Armenian Christian identified as Maroni Ohannes, 49, and a female passenger died of gunshots to the head. Another woman passenger was wounded in the shoulder, while a child was injured by flying glass.

Several witnesses reported barrages of gunfire, and a policeman who witnessed the shooting said that after blazing away at the car the foreign security guards sped off "like gangsters."

Commenting on the incident, Unity said "the first information that we have is that our security team was approached at speed by a vehicle which failed to stop despite an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal flare.

"Finally shots were fired at the vehicle and it stopped. Unity is now working with the Iraqi authorities to determine the outcome of this incident.

"We deeply regret this incident."

A small group of the dead women's grieving relatives gathered for their funerals at the Armenian Church in central Baghdad on Wednesday.

"The incident is a barbarous crime," said one sobbing relative, Kasbar Boghos. "Those guards are inhuman. They have no pity nor do they have any religion."

Another, Kevork Armelian, judged the shootings a "crime against humanity."

"We call on the Iraqi government to put an end to this," Armelian told AFP. "It was clear that women were inside the car when they opened fire haphazardly and deliberately.

"We demand the expulsion of the company so that others can learn a lesson. The Australian government when sending envoys should teach them human rights -- not how to kill innocent people."

The US State Department, whose personnel Blackwater had been escorting during the earlier incident on September 16, has denied any link between the latest shooting and the American government.

However, it has emerged that Unity was returning to its headquarters after transporting members of RTI International, a company under contract to the US government agency USAID, when the two Iraqi women were killed.

"No RTI staff members were involved or present when the incident occurred. Unity was not transporting RTI personnel at the time.

"They had completed a transportation mission and were returning to their base of operations," Patrick Gibbons, the group's communications director, told AFP, while confirming RTI personnel had just been dropped off.

RTI is a non-profit organisation involved in training Iraqis in local government management and administration.

"USAID does not direct the security arrangements of contractors," US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP.

"Contractors are contractually responsible for the safety and well being of their employees," she said, adding that the State Department was in contact with the Iraqi authorities about the shooting.

Iraq's government said on Monday that it was determined to rein in private security contractors operating in the war-torn country following the Blackwater shooting, which an Iraqi report said was unprovoked.

"We have set strict mechanisms to control the behaviour of the security companies and their conduct in the streets," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf said.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse.

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