Mercenaries have been around almost as long as war itself. What is new, however, is the emergence of the "corporate mercenary" companies, which employ ex-military personnel and others and then sell their services to governments, mining companies, relief organisations and others. The corporate mercenary companies are often refered to as private military and security companies, or PMSCs. In 2002, the UK government produced a Green, or consultative, Paper with options for the regulation of the burgeoning industry.
After a flurry of activity, and a report by the Foreign Affairs Committee, the issue disappeared from the political agenda until 2005 when then Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw MP, asked officials to review the options. This review considered ways forward including self-regulation, national regulation along the lines of arms export controls and / or licensing systems for companies and personnel.
Government abdicating responsibility for regulation
After that, the Government went quiet for a long time until finally, in April 2009, Foreign Secretary David Miliband MP rejected the call for regulation. Instead, he proposed that a trade organisation, the British Association of Private Security Companies should promote high standards through a code of conduct to be agreed with and monitored by the Government. The Government would also itself only contract companies which could demonstrate that they operate to high standards and would work internationally to promote high standards. Any system of Government licensing was ruled out.
As well as proposing to abdicate its responsibility to the trade association, the Government's proposals could allow mercenary groups to legitimise themselves as "respectable" private military and security corporations.
A consultation on the proposal finished in July 2009, but the Government did not issue its response until December 2009, a delay which possibly occurred because of a shooting in Iraq in August 2009 which resulted in the death of two employees of the PMSC ArmorGroup. They were allegedly shot by a third employee, who despite vetting by the company, was said by family and friends to have severe mental health problems.
CAAT had hoped that this tragic case would prompt the FCO to reconsider its proposals for self-regulation as these were a total dereliction of duty. Unfortunately, it did not and only conceded the possibility that a body other than the BAPSC be charged with overseeing the code of conduct. The Government consulted further on its proposals, producing a summary (PDF 156kb) of the results of this in April 2010. The new Coalition government is currently reviewing the matter.
The background
An employee of US mercenary
firm Blackwater on duty in Iraq.
The issue of private military companies came to prominence in the 1998 Arms to Sierra Leone affair when UK company Sandline International was alleged to have broken a UN arms embargo by providing forces of the exiled government of Sierra Leone with 28 tonnes of small arms from Bulgaria. The founder of Sandline, Colonel Tim Spicer, moved on to form a new company, Aegis Defence Services, which in 2004 was awarded a $293million contract by the Pentagon to 'coordinate' the 50-odd security companies operating in Iraq.
Officially the roles of "private security operators" are confined to protecting key sites and individuals, and military training, but increasingly they have been sucked into combat roles and it is alleged that they also do the 'dirtiest' kind of work in the interrogation centres.
The upper ranks of the companies are often filled with recently serving officers in the US and UK armies, who can receive much more money in their new positions than they did in the official armed forces. Overall, however, the companies are cheap, because most of their staff come from Iraq or from poor countries like Nepal and Fiji and are willing to serve for a fraction of a UK soldier's pay. The growth in private military and security companies is not confined to Iraq. Others work in Afghanistan and many other countries around the globe.
Further Reading
Miliband and the mercenaries, a guardian.co.uk comment by War on Want's John Hilary responding to the UK government's rejection of regulation, April 2009.
Getting away with murder (PDF 352kb), a War on Want report, with action ideas, about the tens of thousands of mercenaries in Iraq who are committing human rights abuses and operating outside the law, 2007.
Corporate Mercenaries (PDF 165mb), a War on Want report and campaign on the threat of private military and security companies, 2006.
CAAT's response to the Green Paper on Private Military Companies, 2002.
The Privatisation of Violence, CAAT Report, 1999.
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