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April 30, 2004

Subcontracting Human Rights Abuse

This is why use of mercenaries are unacceptable:

Graphic photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US-run prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a military inquiry which has left six soldiers facing a possible court martial and a general under investigation.

The scandal has also brought to light the growing and largely unregulated role of private contractors in the interrogation of detainees.

I am not a pacifist but if violence occurs, I want everyone involved under tight military discipline and command. The military is not always ethical, but at least they as individuals don't profit based on their actions. And when soldiers break discipline, they are immediately accountable, where private mercenaries exist in a nether world of no accountability if military law does not apply and local law is not functioning, as in Iraq:

One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.

We need to demand the end of corporate mercenaries. Today. Now.

Here are some of the pictures from an australian paper :

A photo from TV shows naked prisoners positioned in a human pyramid. Photo: Sky News


A photo from TV shows an Iraqi prisoner with a hood over his head, standing on a box and with wires connected to his hands. Photo: Sky News

Posted by Nathan at April 30, 2004 07:19 AM