Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 16 januar 2008 / Time Line January 16, 2008
Version 3.515. Januar 2008, 17. Januar 2008
01/16/2008
Department of Justice Continues to Ignore Violent Crimes
Committed By Private Security Contractors in Iraq,
Afghanistan
Human Rights First Report Details Risk to Mission from
‘Culture of Impunity’
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/usls/2008/alert/406/
NEW YORK, Jan.16, 2008—The Department of Justice’s
systematic failure to hold private security contractors operating
in Iraq and Afghanistan criminally responsible for acts of
excessive violence and abuse has created a dangerous “culture
of impunity,” a new report finds.
Released today by Human Rights First, the report entitled
“Private Security Contractors at War: Ending the Culture of
Impunity,” offers the first comprehensive look at this
growing crisis and includes a number of practical recommendations
for addressing and correcting this increasingly dangerous
situation. The report is based on interviews, court records,
government reports, declassified documents and other documentary
sources. It concludes that this lack of accountability has given
rise to a principle of “shoot first, ask questions
later—or never,” which threatens not only the safety of
Iraqi and Afghan civilians, American troops and the contractors
themselves, but also the U.S. military missions in those two
countries.
The report concludes that existing laws indeed could and should be
strengthened and expanded, but that the current legal framework
already “covers most criminal misconduct by most contractors
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that arguments to the contrary merely
rationalize inaction” by the Justice Department. The Justice
Department’s failure to allocate sufficient investigative and
prosecutorial resources have led private security contractors to
feel that they operate in a law-free zone in which systems of
criminal accountability are absent, unused or dysfunctional.
 |
 |