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UK security firms remain immune from prosecution under Iraqi law

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 22, IRNA -- Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammall has 
revealed that UK-based private contractors in Iraq remain immune 
from prosecution under local law. 
"Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Order 17 continues to 
govern the status of certain foreign private security contractors in 
Iraq," Rammell said in a written parliamentary reply, published 
Tuesday. 
He said that this included "private security contractors who are 
providing security services to Diplomatic Missions, the Multinational 
Force, International Consultants and other contractors defined in the 
Order, and their personnel." 
"Such contractors will be immune from Iraqi legal process with 
respect to acts performed by them pursuant to the terms of a 
contract," the Foreign Office Minister told MPs. 
But he insisted that contractors "must, however, respect Iraqi 
laws." Private security companies, he also said, "must comply with 
all CPA Orders and Memoranda." 
"CPA Memorandum 17 obliges all such companies operating in Iraq 
to obtain a Business License from the Iraqi Ministry of Trade and an 
Operating License from the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior (MOI)," 
Rammell further explained. 
He said the MOI "monitors the actions of such companies and can 
revoke their Operating License" and that "the contracting state has 
the right to waive the immunity of such companies." 
A report carried out by Tiri, a London-based governance campaign 
group, last month criticized the extent of waste and corruption 
among the large use of western companies involved in Iraq`s post-war 
construction and singled out the profits made by security firms. 
"The foreign contractors have actually done very little work. 
They`ve just surrounded themselves with bodyguards. The people that 
have made money in Iraq are the security companies," Tiri chairman, 
Jeremy Carver, said. 
The damning findings came as London-listed security firm, Armor, 
chaired by former UK Defence Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, was 
reported to have earned nearly Dlrs 100 million in one year alone 
from guarding foreigners in Iraq - almost half its total revenue. 
In a trading statement in January, the company, which floated on 
the stock market shortly before Christmas, conceded the Iraq war was 
the chief reason behind a 93 per cent surge in business in 2004. 
HC/1412