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September 23rd,
2007 - Iraqi PM: Shootings Threaten Sovereignty News article by the Associated
Press |
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Iraqi PM: Shootings Threaten
Sovereignty By John Daniszewski & Tarek El-Tablawy Associated Press September 23, 2007 New York - Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday the shooting deaths of civilians -
allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA guards - and other violence
involving the company pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of
Iraq" and cannot be accepted. "The Iraqi government
is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security
company to carry out a killing," he told The Associated Press, speaking
in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the U.N. General
Assembly. Noting that Blackwater has
been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians,
he added: "There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of
Iraq." In Arabic, he used the word "tajawiz" which can be
translated either as "affronts" or "challenges." However, Maliki left open
the possibility that Iraq and the United States would work toward a solution
to the problem of Blackwater. "We have coordinated with the American
side to establish a joint committee to ascertain the facts and hold accountable"
those responsible, he said. In the interview, Maliki
defended his government and spoke up for the rights of Iraqis to manage their
own affairs. He said that his country is making progress toward political
reconciliation and that 2008 would be a year of political and economic
progress and reconstruction for Iraq. Speaking in a calm voice,
al-Maliki was dismissive of some of the criticism directed at him by
Washington politicians in recent months. Some members of Congress have said
al-Maliki is not forceful enough in pressing for political reconciliation and
achieving benchmarks meant to measure progress in the four-year U.S.
intervention in Iraq. Maliki said it is normal for
any government to be criticized, but he feels certain that he has the backing
in Washington he needs. "What is important is
that it did not come from the American administration or President
Bush," he said of his critics. "That it comes from other areas ...
for other reasons, is not a concern of mine. ... It means nothing for
me," he said. The Sept. 16 killing of at
least 11 civilians near a square in central Baghdad has highlighted the
practices of foreign security contractors whose aggressive protection of
Western diplomats and other dignitaries has long angered Iraqis. U.S.-Iraqi relations have
been further strained by the U.S. detention of an Iranian Thursday in
northern Iraq who was accused by the military of smuggling weapons to Shiite
militias for use against American troops. Al-Maliki condemned the
detention and said it was his understanding that the man had been invited to
Iraq. "The government of Iraq
is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for
the visa," he said. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual
who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable." Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani, a Kurd, demanded the Iranian's release on Saturday, saying he was a
member of an official delegation that was in the autonomous Kurdish city of
Sulaimaniyah with the full knowledge of the Iraqi government and local
authorities. Military spokesman Rear Adm.
Mark Fox, however, said the Iranian was posing as a businessman but was
actually a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
who was smuggling armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators known as EFPs
into Iraq. Underscoring the dangers,
the military said an American soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded
when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad. The U.S. administration is
scrambling to quell Iraqi anger over the Sept. 16 shooting in Nisoor Square,
in which Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy allegedly
opened fire on Iraqis. The Moyock, N.C.-based company says its contractors
were responding to an armed attack. Iraqi officials and witnesses say the
shooting was unprovoked, although they have offered conflicting details. The Interior Ministry banned
Blackwater from operating in Iraq, but rolled back after the U.S. agreed to
the joint investigation. The company resumed guarding a reduced number of
American convoys on Friday. But Iraqi officials said new
rules have to be put in place to govern the behavior of the security
companies. "If we expel this
company immediately there will be a security vacuum that will demand pulling
some troops off the battlefield," Tahseen Sheikhly, a civilian spokesman
for the seven-month-old offensive against militants in Baghdad and surrounding
areas. "This will create a security imbalance in securing Baghdad." The Iraqi Interior Ministry
complained that U.S. authorities ignored repeated complaints about past
Blackwater behavior as the company was implicated in six other fatal
shootings, including one on Feb. 7 outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad
that killed three building guards. "Our complaints went
nowhere," deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal said. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman
Mirembe Nantongo said the Americans asked the Iraqis to share any reports on
Blackwater's behavior. "We have no official
documentation on file from our Iraqi partners requesting clarification of any
incident, but we're open to sharing relevant findings from our past
investigations," she said. It is doubtful that foreign security
contractors could be prosecuted under Iraqi law. A directive issued by U.S.
occupation authorities in 2004 granted contractors, American troops and many
other foreign officials immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Security
contractors also are not subject to U.S. military law under which U.S.
troopers face prosecution for killing or abusing Iraqis. Associated Press writers
Sameer N. Yacoub, Sinan Salaheddin and Katarina Kratovac in Baghdad and
Qassim Abdul-Zahra in New York contributed to this report. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsRzAZWCfew_XJUT0q_dTF6N9pfQ Iraq tempers call for U.S.
firm’s dismissal Expelling the private security company, accused of killing 11
civilians, would leave a vacuum, an Iraqi official says. The American guards
are said to aggressively disregard Iraqi lives, an accusation By Alexandra Zavis Los Angeles Times September 23, 2007 Baghdad - An Iraqi official
conceded today that expelling a private U.S. firm accused in the deaths of 11
Iraqis would leave a "security vacuum" and said that the two
countries would instead look at ways to better regulate companies that
protect Western personnel and facilities. A joint commission is
expected to hold its first meeting within days, the U.S. Embassy said. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki had
demanded that the U.S. Embassy replace Blackwater USA, saying he would not
allow Iraqis to be killed after its employees were involved in a Sept. 16
shooting in Baghdad's western Mansour neighborhood. But U.S. officials asked
him to wait for the results of a joint investigation. A spokesman for Iraqi
security efforts in Baghdad said that it was not feasible to force out
Blackwater, which has 1,000 employees providing security in Iraq. "If we drive out this
company immediately, there will be a security vacuum that would force us to
pull troops out of the field to protect these institutes," Tahseen
Sheikhly said. "That would cause a big imbalance in the security
situation." A preliminary inquiry by
Iraq's Interior Ministry concluded that Blackwater guards fired on civilians
without provocation. But the North Carolina-based company has said that its
guards were ambushed and responded appropriately to defend an embassy convoy
they were protecting. The embassy is conducting
its own investigation into the incident and will report its findings to the
U.S.-Iraqi commission, embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said. Sheikhly said the commission
also will look at ways to regulate the scores of private security companies,
which Iraqis accuse of an aggressive disregard for their lives. A directive
issued by U.S. occupation authorities after the 2003 invasion granted foreign
security contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq, though cases can be
brought under certain circumstances in a U.S. court. The 16-member commission
will be chaired by U.S. Charge d'Affaires Patricia A. Butenis and Iraqi
Defense Minister Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim Mifarji. The U.S. side will include
five embassy and three military representatives, Nantongo said. Iraqi
officials have not yet announced who will represent them. Separately, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice announced Friday a Washington-based review of
U.S.-government-affiliated private security details in Iraq. Details of how
that inquiry would be conducted were still being worked out, Nantongo said. She refuted concerns that
the separate investigations signaled a lack of trust between the two sides. "Clearly, everybody
takes this very, very seriously," she said. "I would think the more
eyes and ears involved, the better." The U.S. military,
meanwhile, said one soldier was killed and another injured when a
particularly lethal type of explosive detonated on their patrol during combat
Saturday in an eastern section of the capital. U.S. officials accuse Iran of
supplying the so-called explosive-formed penetrators to Shiite Muslim
militiamen active in that part of the city. Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, a
U.S. military spokesman, said today that Iran continued to smuggle advanced
weapons into Iraq. Tehran has denied the charge and blames the presence of
foreign troops for the persistent violence in Iraq. At least 3,798 U.S.
personnel have been killed since the start of the Iraq war, according to the
website icasualties.org, which tracks military deaths. In other violence, retired
Iraqi Brig. Gen. Muthanna Abdul Razzaq was killed when a roadside bomb hit
his car this morning in the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood, police said.
Another passenger was injured in the blast. In northern Iraq, police in
Kirkuk reported that the bullet-riddled body of a kidnapped policeman was
found near Mustafiya village. Special correspondents in
Baghdad and Kirkuk contributed to this report. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq24sep24,1,4569447.story |