Criminal charges are planned in the incident that involved foreign contractors and left a woman injured. 'We will no longer be easy on this,' official says.
By Doug Smith
Los Angeles Times, 20 November 2007
BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials took a hard line today on abuses by foreign security guards, saying criminal charges would be filed in the nonfatal shooting of a woman on Monday by a convoy ferrying laborers across the city.
"We will no longer be easy on this," said Qassim Atta, spokesman for Iraqi security forces in the capital.
A home video of the incident that circulated in the capital today dramatized the rage that Iraqis harbor against private security contractors whose convoys drive at high speeds and are authorized to shoot at threats.
Critics say they drive recklessly and sometimes shoot indiscriminately at cars that pose no threat.
The jerky picture, apparently taken from the bed of a truck that was transporting the workers, shows a swarm of angry bystanders being kept at bay by warning shots. About a dozen people lie in the truck bed cowering under blankets and suitcases as three soldiers stand over them. One soldier strikes at several of them with a cane-like stick as voices in the crowd urge him on.
Iraqi officials arrested 43 people in the incident, some of them laborers and some security. The detainees were two Fijians, 10 Iraqis, 21 Sri Lankans, one Indian, and nine Nepalese, the U.S. military said.
Despite the apparent evidence that most of the detainees in the shooting were unarmed, Atta said none would be released until the investigation is complete.
Atta's comments did not make clear whether they were being held as suspects or witnesses, but he said those responsible for the shooting would be turned over to Iraqi courts for prosecution and the others would be released. He could not say when that would be.
"We are now interrogating the members of the company to find out who did the shooting and we will hand him to the judicial courts," Atta said.
The charges would be driving on the wrong side of the street, shooting randomly at civilians and injuring one, Atta said.
The U.S. military said it was working with Iraqi forces to provide support, but was not involved in the investigation.
Attempts to prosecute could prove problematic because Iraqi law currently grants immunity to foreign contractors under an order established during the post-invasion U.S. occupation.
Following a September shooting in which guards for Blackwater USA, the company that provides security to U.S. embassy officials, killed 17 Iraqis, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki last month proposed a law that would repeal contractors' immunity, but parliament has not yet acted on it.
The company involved in Monday's shooting, Almco Group, is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and has contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide some bases with essentials such as food, water and tents, the U.S. military said. It also has a contract to build a courthouse as part of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
Almco had contracted with an Iraqi company, Al Iraq Al Moaser, to provide security for the convoy, said a U.S. military spokesman.
It was unclear whether those being escorted were related to a U.S. Defense contract or another of Almco's clients in Iraq.
In a statement today, the U.S. military said, "It is up to the government of Iraq to determine what charges, if any, will be filed."
Also today, a car bomb in Bayaa, in southwest Baghdad, killed one person and injured six, and in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, armed men opened fire, killing two computer engineers at a mosque, a source at Yarmouk hospital said.
A roadside bomb exploded in a village southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, killing one Iraqi soldier and injuring five others, police said.
Citation: Doug Smith. "Iraq takes hard stance in shooting by security guards," Los Angeles Times, 20 November 2007.
Original URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq21nov21,1,1573198.story?coll=la-iraq-complete