UK 'license to kill' to private armies accusation
Regional-UK, Politics, 10/20/2009

A protest demonstration was being held in central London Tuesday against UK government plan to allow private armies to effectively police themselves.

Campaigners from War on Want international charity were demonstrating outside the annual conference of the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC), accusing the government of awarding mercenaries a "license to kill" by refusing to regulate the industry.

One demonstrator was dressed as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, handing over money to armed mercenaries.
A keynote speech at the conference was being made by former Defence and Home Secretary John Reid, who is now a £50,000 a year group consultant to G4S, including ArmorGroup, hired by the British government in Afghanistan and Iraq.

ArmorGroup hit the headlines in August when one of its contractors shot and killed two colleagues in Baghdad. Last year guards from the British private military and security firm, Erinys International, fired on a taxi, wounding three Iraqi civilians near Kirkuk.

Britain has the second largest private security industry in the world. It is estimated that the government spent £148 million on security contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last three years.
The protest comes as the government is due to announce the outcome of consultation on its proposal for a voluntary code of conduct overseen by the BAPSC, the industry body.

But War on Want said all such firms should be subjected to individual parliamentary approved licenses. It also called for any government ministry which contracts a private security service to be held responsible for the firm's conduct and for any human rights abuses to be independently investigated.

Senior campaigns officer at the charity Yasmin Khan accused the government of ignoring all regulatory options in favor of a voluntary code of conduct for private armies.

"This is giving a license to kill to private military and security companies. The proposed voluntary code of conduct flies in the face of the growing consensus on the need to regulate this deadly industry," Khan said.

She warned that more lives in war zones will be put at risk unless the government acts to regulate private armies and ends risking civilian lives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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