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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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October 10th,
2007 - Iraqis Probe Killings of Women News article from the Associated Press News article from the Washington Post News article from the New York Times |
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Iraqis Probe Killings of
Women From the Associated Press October 10, 2007 Baghdad - U.S. and Iraqi
officials Wednesday were investigating yet another shooting of Iraqi
civilians by a heavily armed security firm linked to U.S. government-financed
work in Iraq. The bodies of Marou Awanis
and Geneva Jalal, the Christian women killed in the Tuesday shooting, were
taken, meanwhile, to Baghdad's Armenian Orthodox Virgin Mary Church for
funeral services. Iraqi authorities blamed the
women's deaths on guards working for Unity Resources Group, a security
company owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in Dubai in the
United Arab Emirates. Unity provides security
services to RTI International, a group based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.,
that promotes governance projects in Iraq for the U.S. Agency for
International Development. Both Unity and RTI
acknowledged a security contract between them and both entities said […]. RTI
staffers were not present when the shooting occurred in Baghdad's Karradah
district. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman
said RTI was under contract by USAID but was responsible for its own
security. "USAID does not direct
the security arrangements of contractors," Mirembe Nantongo said. According to the USAID Web
site, RTI has about $450 million in U.S. government contracts to work on
local governance projects in Iraq. USAID is a semi-autonomous arm of the U.S.
State Department that manages American aide programs. Michael Priddin, chief
operating officer of Unity, told The Associated Press on Wednesday the firm
was working with Iraqi authorities "to find out the results of the
shooting incident ... we are trying to work out a true picture of what
happened." In a statement issued
Tuesday night, Priddin said, "We deeply regret this incident." Iraqi government officials,
police and witnesses said guards working for Unity fired on a white
Oldsmobile as it approached their convoy Tuesday afternoon, killing the two
women before speeding away from the latest bloodshed blamed on the deadly mix
of heavily armed protection details on Baghdad's crowded streets. The deaths of the women -
including one who used the white sedan as an unofficial taxi to raise money
for her family - came a day after the Iraqi government handed U.S. officials
a report demanding hefty payments and the ouster from Iraq of embattled
Blackwater USA for a chaotic shooting last month that left at least 17
civilians dead. The Tuesday killings were
certain to sharpen Iraqi government demands to curb the expanding array of
security firms in Iraq watching over diplomats, aid groups and others. Accounts of the incident -
from company statements, witnesses and others - suggested the Unity guards
opened fire as the car failed to heed warnings to stop and drifted closer to
the convoy near a Unity facility in Karrahah. Statements from both Unity
and RTI have made clear the guards were not escorting RTI clients when the
shooting occurred. Four armored SUVs - three
white and one gray - were about 100 yards from a main intersection in the
Shiite-controlled district at about 1:40 p.m. As the car moved into the
crossroads, the Unity guards threw a smoke bomb in an apparent bid to warn
the driver not to come closer, said Riyadh Majid, an Iraqi policeman who saw
the shooting. Two of the Unity guards then
opened fire. The woman driving the car tried to stop, but was killed along
with her passenger. Two of three people in the back seat were wounded. Priddin's Tuesday statement
offered a similar account: "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." Iraqi police investigators
said they collected 19 spent 5.56 mm shell casings, ammunition commonly used
by U.S. and NATO forces and most Western security organizations. The pavement
was stained with blood and covered with shattered glass from the car windows. Majid said the convoy raced
away after the shooting. Iraqi police came to collect the bodies and tow the
car to the local station. A second policeman, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution, said the
guards were masked and wearing khaki uniforms. He said one of them left the
vehicle and started to shoot at the car while another opened fire from the
open back door of a separate SUV. Marou Awanis was born in
1959, Geneva Jalal in 1977. Awanis' sister-in-law, Anahet Bougous, said the
woman had been using her car to drive government employees to work to help
raise money for her three daughters. Her husband died during heart surgery
last year. "May God take revenge
on those killers," Bougous said, crying outside the police station.
"Now, who is going to raise them?" "These are innocent
people killed by people who have no heart or consciousness. The Iraqi people
have no value to them," said a man who was part of a group of relatives
gathered with a Christian priest at the local police station. Iraqi anger has grown
against the private security companies - nearly all based in the United
States, Britian and other Western countries - as symbols of the lawlessness
that has ravaged their country for more than four years. Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraq's
government spokesman, said: "Today's incident is part of a series of
reckless actions by some security companies." An Iraqi investigation of
the Blackwater shooting on Sept. 16 was ordered by Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki and called for the company to pay $8 million in compensation to the
families of each of the 17 victims. The commission also said Blackwater
guards had killed 21 other Iraqis in past incidents since it began protecting
American diplomats in Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Unity also has come under
scrutiny before. In March 2006, the company
issued an statement of sympathy after one of its guards was blamed for
shooting a 72-year-old Iraqi-born Australian, Kays Juma, at a security
checkpoint in Baghdad. Australian Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said Juma was killed because he was in a car that failed to
stop. Unity said multi-national forces and Iraqi police also were present at
the checkpoint at the time. Unity provides armed guards
and security training throughout Iraq. Its heavily armed teams are Special
Forces veterans from Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Britain -
as well as former law enforcement officers from those countries. Associated Press writers
Katarina Kratovac and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this story. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html Australian-Run Firm’s Convoy Fires on Vehicle By Joshua Partlow & Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post October 10, 2007 Baghdad, Oct. 9 - Private
security guards from an Australian-run firm opened fire on a white sedan in
downtown Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon, killing two Iraqi Christian women who
were driving home from work. The killings came at a time
of unprecedented scrutiny into the behavior of Western private security
guards, seen by many Iraqis as reckless mercenaries with little regard for
Iraqi life. In an incident last month involving Blackwater USA, guards killed
as many as 17 people in what Iraqi and some U.S. officials have described as
unprovoked murder. Tuesday's shooting involved
Unity Resources Group, a Dubai-based company founded by an Australian and
registered in Singapore. The firm was employed by RTI International, a nonprofit
organization that does governance work in Iraq on a contract for the U.S.
Agency for International Development, according to David Snider, a USAID
spokesman in Washington. The two Iraqi women were
shot as they came up behind a convoy of the firm's sport-utility vehicles,
and their deaths seemed certain to heighten tensions between the Iraqi
government and the thousands of private security guards operating in Iraq. "They used excessive
force against civilians. Two ladies have been killed," said Iraqi
government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. "They are facing a high level of
threat, but this does not entitle them not to be subjected to justice, law
and accountability." Iraqi Interior Ministry
officials said Unity Resources was registered with the ministry and reported
the shooting afterward. "They have admitted what they have done,"
said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the chief Interior Ministry spokesman.
"They have apologized and said they will do whatever the Interior
Ministry asks them to do." Both the company and the
Interior Ministry have launched investigations into the incident. The violence broke out in
the early afternoon, when four SUVs belonging to Unity were heading east
along a six-lane divided thoroughfare in Karrada, one of central Baghdad's
most popular shopping districts. The white Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, carrying
four people - including at least three women - drove toward the convoy from
behind, witnesses said. Iraqi police investigating
the incident said the gunner in the last vehicle threw open a door and tossed
what looked like a flare, then fired at least 19 rounds into the Oldsmobile. According to Unity's chief
operating officer, Michael Priddin, the women drove up quickly and
"failed to stop despite escalation of warnings" including
"hand signals and a signal flare." "Finally shots were
fired at the vehicle and it stopped in close vicinity to the security
team," Priddin said in a telephone interview. "We deeply regret the
firing of shots." Iraqi police and witnesses
at the scene gave differing accounts. Some said the Oldsmobile kept driving
toward the convoy while others said it had stopped a safe distance away. They
agreed that the car posed no threat to the security guards. The gunfire sparked chaos on
the crowded street as pedestrians ran for cover. A horse pulling a cart, used
for selling black-market cooking gas, galloped away without its owner.
Traffic policemen believed insurgents were attacking. "A vehicle got close to
them, and they opened fire on it randomly as if they were in the middle of a
confrontation," said Ahmed Kadhim Hussein, a policeman at the scene.
"You won't find a head. The brain is scattered on the ground." He added: "I am shaking
as I am trying to describe to you what happened. We are not able to eat.
These were innocent people. Is it so natural for them to shoot innocent
people?" The Oldsmobile was shot
first in the radiator as it passed a plumbing supply shop, employees said.
The shooting continued and the car came to rest about 50 yards away, next to
a yellow and white median curb marked by broken glass and blood. "Probably they were not
paying attention and they weren't able to stop right away," said one
employee, who would not give his name. The Oldsmobile, towed to a
police station in Karrada, left little doubt how the women died. There were
holes from at least 35 bullets that scarred the hood, punctured the
windshield, popped tires and shattered three windows. Rivulets of blood ran
down the driver's door. The shots killed the driver,
Marony Ohanis, born in 1958, and the front-seat passenger, Geneva Jalal
Entranic, born in 1977, relatives said. A woman and a young boy were in the
back seat, witnesses said. Police said the boy was shot in the arm. They were
all friends who knew one another from the Armenian Orthodox church in
Baghdad, relatives said. Christians are a small minority in Iraq. After her husband died about
two years ago from heart trouble, Ohanis, a college graduate with an
agriculture degree, made money to support her three daughters by driving
friends home from work, said Lida Sarkis, her niece. One of her daughters, a
college student in engineering, sobbed as she walked around the broken car. "She was very calm, she
always prayed, she always went to church," Sarkis said. "They
killed them. She was stopped. That's all." In March 2006, a guard
employed by Unity Resources Group allegedly shot dead an Australian resident
in Baghdad whose car failed to stop at a security checkpoint. After an
investigation, the case was eventually settled with the Iraqi authorities,
Priddin said. The company has operated in
Iraq since 2004 and mostly protects premises and moving convoys, Priddin
said. The firm operates in Pakistan and southern Sudan as well as in Asia and
Australia, according to its Web site. Also Tuesday, violence
spiked across the country, with more than 45 people killed in bombings and
shootings. In two of the deadliest incidents, suicide car bombers attacked in
quick succession in northern Iraq, targeting a local police chief and a
prominent Sunni tribal leader who has been working with U.S. troops in the
fight against the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi and U.S. military
officials said. The two car bombs detonated
in the morning in Baiji, an oil refinery town, and killed at least seven
people, including five Iraqi police officers, and wounded 21 others,
according to Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a U.S. military spokesman in northern
Iraq. Hospital officials said the death toll reached 19, with more people in
critical condition. One bomb blew up outside the
home of the Baiji police chief, Col. Saad al-Nifoos, while the second, a
tanker loaded with explosives, targeted Samir Ibrahim, the area leader of a
movement known as the Awakening Council, a tribal organization formed to
fight extremists. Both men survived. Another Sunni tribal leader allied with
Americans in Salahuddin province was killed in the past month, Donnelly said. "We see this as yet
another drastic measure" by al-Qaeda in Iraq "trying to disrupt a
process that's got some momentum," he said. "They're actually being
marginalized by the people, and strategically this is a good sign." The bombs destroyed and
damaged homes, and rescue workers spent the morning pulling bodies from the
rubble. Ahmad Mahmmoud, a member of
the governing council in Baiji, vowed to continue the fight to drive out
al-Qaeda in Iraq, "whom I consider vampires sucking the blood of poor
Iraqis." Special correspondents Saad
al-Izzi and Zaid Sabah in Baghdad and Muhanned Saif Aldin in Tikrit
contributed to this report. External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/AR2007100900481.html Two Iraqi Women Killed in
Shooting by Security Convoy By Andrew E. Kramer & James Glanz New York Times October 10, 2007 Baghdad - Two women died
here on Tuesday when their white Oldsmobile was riddled by automatic gunfire
from guards for a private security company, just weeks after a shooting by
another company strained relations between the United States and Iraq. The guards involved in the
Tuesday shooting were working for an Australian-run security company. But the
people they were assigned to protect work under the same United States
government agency whose security guards sprayed bullets across a crowded
Baghdad square on Sept. 16, an episode that caused an uproar among Iraqi
officials and is still being investigated by the United States. In the Tuesday shooting, as
many as 40 bullets struck the car, killing the driver and the woman in the
front seat on the passenger side. A woman and a boy in the back seat
survived, according to witnesses and local police officials in the Karada
neighborhood, where the shooting took place on a boulevard lined with
appliance stores, tea shops and money changers. American government
officials said the guards had been hired to protect financial and policy
experts working for an organization under contract with the United States
Agency for International Development, a quasi-independent State Department
agency that does extensive aid work in Iraq. The organization, RTI
International, is in Iraq to carry out what is ultimately a State Department
effort to improve local government and democratic institutions. But a Bush
administration official said the State Department bore no responsibility for
overseeing RTI's security operations. "A.I.D. does not direct
the security arrangements of its contractors," the official said.
"These groups are contractually responsible for the safety and security
of their employees. That responsibility falls entirely on the
contractor." A priest and relatives near
the scene said that all of the people in the car were Armenian Christians,
who make up a small minority group in Iraq. The Oldsmobile was shot once in
the radiator, witnesses said, in front of a plumbing supply store as it
approached a convoy of white sport utility vehicles 50 yards away. As the car kept rolling, a
barrage of gunfire suddenly tore through its hood, roof and windshield, as
well as the passenger side. The guards who were in the
convoy work for Unity Resources Group, an Australian-run company that has its
headquarters in Dubai and is registered in Singapore, according to a
statement by the company. Unity Resources was hired by RTI to provide
security in Iraq. In its statement, Unity
Resources said that according to its initial information, the car had
approached the convoy "at speed" and failed to stop in response to
hand signals and a warning flare. "Finally shots were
fired at the vehicle and it stopped," the company said. The episode's connection
with the United States Agency for International Development is one of several
parallels to the Sept. 16 shootings, in which the Iraqi government says 17
Iraqis died and 27 were wounded. The Sept. 16 episode began
when a convoy operated by Blackwater USA, an American private security
company hired to protect the aid agency's officials, entered Nisour Square in
central Baghdad and fired several bullets toward a car the guards apparently
considered a threat. In the Tuesday shooting,
like the one on Sept. 16, the car drifted forward after the initial burst,
prompting guards to unleash a barrage of gunfire. And there were no
government officials or policy experts in either of the convoys: the Nisour
Square convoy was controlling traffic as part of a larger operation, and the
convoy in Karada was on a routine movement that involved only security
guards, according to American officials. Although the United States
Embassy in Baghdad has said almost nothing about the Nisour Square episode
while an American investigation grinds on, the Iraqi government has said its
own investigation concluded that the shootings were an act of
"deliberate murder" and called on the Blackwater guards to be
prosecuted. Ali Jafar, a traffic
policeman posted near the Karada shooting, said he thought the similarities
between the cases were undeniable. "They are killing the
people just like what happened in Nisour Square," Mr. Jafar said.
"They are butchering the Iraqis." The new shootings happened
at an extremely difficult time for the State Department, which relies heavily
on Blackwater to protect its diplomats whenever they work outside the
fortified Green Zone. As a result of new restrictions placed on Blackwater
after the Nisour Square shootings, the State Department's numerous programs
for rebuilding Iraqi government and technical institutions have been
seriously hampered. Embassy officials have vowed
to continue their operations even as they increase oversight of Blackwater
operations. But Tuesday's episode appears to show that the new oversight
comes with many loopholes: Unity Resources is not working directly for the
State Department, but for RTI International, which has been contracted by the
aid agency to provide experts on local governing. In fact, an American Embassy
spokesman said, the State Department has no say in the operations of security
companies employed by government contractors. "Their contract might be
with A.I.D., but that doesn't shed any light on their choice of security
contractor," he said. A spokesman for Unity
Resources, Martin Simich, said Tuesday that he was unsure whether the guards
involved in the shooting had been interviewed by American authorities. On Tuesday, the convoy of
white S.U.V.'s was stopped in the eastbound lane of Karada Street at an
intersection with an alley lined with low concrete homes, witnesses said. A
man who works at the plumbing shop, who gave his name only as Muhammad, said
the Oldsmobile was approaching the convoy from behind. He said he heard no
warnings. "They shot from the back door," he said. "The door
opened and they fired." Two witnesses said they
heard a single shot first, which apparently punctured the Oldsmobile's
radiator, spilling coolant onto the street about 50 yards from where the
convoy was parked. As the car continued rolling, the guards opened up with a
barrage of sustained automatic fire. The car finally came to a stop about 10
yards from the convoy at a point that, three hours later, was marked by blood
stains, broken glass and tufts of brown hair. The plumbing shop employee
said the convoy moved out right away, without checking to see what damage had
been done or to offer medical help. The Oldsmobile was towed to
a nearby police station. The priest and relatives
near the scene identified the driver as Maruni Uhanees, 59, and the dead
passenger as Jeniva Jalal, 30. As twilight set in, family
members gathered beside the car in a dirt alley outside the police station,
staring at the blood and hair on the inside of the windshield. A brother-in-law of the
driver, Hrair Vartanian, said Ms. Uhanees was the mother of three grown
daughters. As he spoke, one daughter arrived and looked at the blood stains,
crying softly. Reporting was contributed by
Richard A. Oppel Jr., Qais Mizher and Ahmad Fadam from Baghdad, John M.
Broder from Washington, and Graham Bowley from New York. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html Australian regrets Baghdad
shootings From the Australian October 10, 2007 The Australian head of a
Dubai-based security company whose staff in Baghdad shot dead two women
overnight said today he regretted the incident. Michael Priddin, chief
operating officer of Unity Resources Group which works as a private security
firm in Iraq and which employs mainly Australians, confirmed the company was
involved in the shooting. His guards fired shots at a
car in the Karrada area of Baghdad after it failed to stop despite several
warnings, including flares and hand signals, he said on ABC radio. "We deeply regret this
incident and we will continue to pass on further information when the facts
have been verified and the necessary people and authorities have been
notified." Mr Priddin said the exact
circumstances of the incident were still to be determined and the company was
working with Iraqi authorities to do so." Witnesses and security
officials in Baghdad said the security guards opened fire on the car then
sped off "like gangsters". Shopkeeper Ammar Fallah said
the guards, who were escorting a civilian convoy through the streets,
signalled for a woman driving a car to pull over as they passed. "When she failed to do
so they opened fire, killing her and the woman next to her,'' he said. "There were two
children in the back seat but they were not harmed. The women were both shot
in the head.'' Iraqi officials confirmed
the incident, which occurred at the Masbar intersection in Karrada, a
commercial and residential district which is regarded as one of the most
secure in Baghdad. "A security convoy of
four-wheel-drive vehicles opened fire on a white car at 2.30pm (9.30pm AEST)
killing two women,'' an interior ministry official said. Another witness, Sattar
Jabar, said the private car had moved too close to the convoy. "It tried to avoid the
convoy of four white SUVs of the foreigners but it came close to the last
vehicle, which then opened fire immediately.'' Mr Jabar said two women were
killed but said a third woman in the back seat had been wounded in the
shoulder. One of the children had been struck by flying glass. An AFP reporter counted 40
bullet holes in the bloodspattered car, which was later towed to the nearby
Masbar police station. A policemen who heard the
shots and came running to the scene said that after the shooting the security
guards "rode away like gangsters". The US State Department
website says the company is staffed and managed by experienced security
professionals drawn from the special forces and police SWAT communities of
the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. "We deeply regret this
incident and will continue to pass on further information when the facts have
been verified and the necessary people and authorities notified," the
company said in a statement. "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," it said. "Finally shots were
fired at the vehicle and it stopped." Foreign security firms have
immunity from Iraqi law under a 2004 regulation written while Iraq was under
US administration following the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The shooting came two days
after Iraq vowed to punish US security firm Blackwater after a probe found
that its guards were not provoked when they opened "deliberate'' fire in
Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 Iraqis. The Iraqi Government said on
Monday it was determined to rein in private security contractors following
the Blackwater shooting. External link: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22561572-12377,00.html |