RIGHTS-CHILE:
UN on the Offensive
Against Iraq Mercenaries
By
Daniela Estrada and
Gustavo González
SANTIAGO, (IPS) -
Mercenary recruitment
agencies that send
former soldiers to Iraq
have been accused in
Chile of human right
abuses, illegal
association, possession
of explosives and
unauthorised use of army
weaponry, and are the
target of a special
United Nations mission.
The UN Working Group (UNWG)
on the "use of
mercenaries as a means
of violating human
rights and impeding the
exercise of the right of
peoples to
self-determination",
established in July 2005
by the then UN
Commission on Human
Rights, conducted a
fact-finding mission
about the recruitment
firms in Chile this
week, and then planned
to head to Montevideo.
Senator Alejandro
Navarro, of the
governing coalition
Socialist Party, is the
prime mover behind the
visit by the delegation,
which arrived in
Santiago on Monday. He
stated that these firms
declare legal residence
in Uruguay, and that
contracts are signed in
international airspace
while the mercenaries
are being flown to the
Middle East.
A Jordanian city has
also been named as a
venue where contracts
are signed. Some of
these contracts
designate the
Conciliation and
Arbitration Centre of
Panama (CeCAP), linked
to Panama's Chamber of
Commerce, as the arbiter
in case of any dispute,
said Navarro, who had
negotiated for two years
for the UNWG to visit
Chile.
At last the government
of President Michelle
Bachelet officially
invited this delegation,
led by UNWG executive
president José Luis
Gómez del Prado, of
Spain, who has already
visited Honduras and
Ecuador in 2006 and Peru
in 2007.
The other UNWG members
are Amada Benavides de
Pérez of Colombia,
Alexander Nikitin of
Russia, Najat Al-Hajjaji
of Libya and Shaista
Shameem of Fiji, not all
of whom came to Chile.
Navarro said that U.S.
private security
companies such as
Blackwater and Triple
Canopy, who recruit
guards at the request of
the U.S. government to
send into armed conflict
zones to protect
strategic installations,
tend to subcontract to
South American firms
like Red Táctica
Consulting Group.
The owner of the
Washington-based Red
Táctica is José Miguel
Pizarro, a retired
general of the Chilean
army who lives in the
U.S. He is also known as
a commentator on Iraq
security issues for the
U.S. news service CNN.
Pizarro had at first
agreed to meet with the
UN mission in Santiago,
but later changed his
mind, saying that Gómez
del Prado is not
impartial and has taken
an "anti-American"
stance, according to
Gómez del Prado himself.
Navarro's investigation
has so far found that
seven or eight
companies, in the
business of recruiting
former Chilean troops
who have retired from
the armed forces or left
voluntarily, were set up
by Pizarro's
lieutenants. The senator
sued them for illegal
association before local
courts in 2004.
These companies pay
their "international
security guards" about
1,200 dollars a month,
and provide board and
lodging, he said.
On Navarro's Internet
page he says that Red
Táctica has broken the
law on private security
guards and alleges they
are guilty of illegal
association, possession
of explosives without
authorisation or legal
registration,
unauthorised use of army
weapons and animal
abuse.
In an interview with IPS,
Navarro complained that
"Chile has not yet
signed or ratified the
International Convention
against the Recruitment,
Use, Financing and
Training of Mercenaries,
(adopted by the UN
General Assembly in)
1989, in spite of having
strongly protested
against the war in
Iraq."
On the UNWG mission
agenda were meetings
with Chile's Foreign
Relations, Defence,
Interior, Labour and
Justice ministers, with
the Supreme Court of
Justice and with members
of Congress, as well as
with university experts,
non-governmental and
inter-governmental
organisations.
Members of the mission
were also to meet with
legal representatives of
the recruiting firms
involved in the
controversy.
According to Navarro's
estimates, close to
1,200 former members of
the Chilean military,
mostly retired and with
an average age of 40,
have gone to Iraq since
2004. They were
recruited by private
companies who operate in
several different
countries in order to
evade future
responsibilities, he
said.
At a meeting Tuesday
with academics and
university researchers,
Gómez del Prado
emphasised the
exponential increase in
the number of
mercenaries involved in
armed conflicts since
the invasion of Iraq in
March 2003.
The use of mercenaries
is a form of "privatising
war," which involves
human trafficking and
other practices that
violate human rights,
said Gómez del Prado and
Benavides de Pérez.
The UNWG rapporteurs
pointed out that
"private security
guards" had participated
alongside U.S. soldiers
in the cases of torture
perpetrated in the Iraqi
prison of Abu Ghraib in
2003.
Chile has been a country
of concern to the UNWG
since 2004, when it was
reported that 124 former
Chilean soldiers were in
Iraq. Sources in
Santiago estimate that
there are currently 500
Chilean mercenaries
there, while Navarro
says there are 1,000.
The university experts
at the meeting said that
Chile has copious
legislation on private
security services, but
mercenaries are not
outlawed, so that it is
essential for the
country to ratify the UN
Convention and adjust
its domestic legislation
accordingly.
The UN rapporteurs
encouraged the
international community
to adopt this
instrument, which has so
far been signed by only
a few countries, in
order to establish
guidelines and
regulations.
"The monopoly over the
use of force (by the
state, in order to
protect its population)
is being increasingly
ceded, de facto, to
private companies,"
Gómez del Prado has
said.
The spread of market
forces, even in war
zones, has led to the
contravention of
international law and
evasion of national
legislation by means of
mercenary recruitment
companies.
So far, no Chileans have
been reported killed in
Iraq, but some of them
have complained of
irregularities and
abuse. Daniel Maturana,
a 28-year-old former
Chilean army soldier,
told the UNWG his story
Tuesday, which had been
broadcast by the media
two years ago after
Navarro reported it.
Maturana said he was
contacted in 2005 by
Global Guard, another
company owned by
Pizarro, to work as a
guard in a "secure
installation" in Iraq,
such as an embassy or an
airport. He was offered
the attractive salary of
2,800 dollars a month
for six months, plus 250
dollars for travelling
expenses and paid
holidays.
Maturana accepted and
boarded a private
charter plane to the
Middle East, along with
one of his brothers,
also an ex-soldier, and
160 other Chilean
mercenaries. He signed
the contract on board
the flight, but to his
surprise the pay
stipulated was only
1,000 dollars a month.
"Pizarro told us: 'If
you don't like it, get
off the plane,'"
Maturana told IPS.
After a 30-hour journey,
during which they ate
only bread and water,
they arrived in Jordan,
where the group was
divided up. Maturana and
his brother were sent to
guard a U.S.-British
diplomatic mission in a
location near Baghdad,
where they carried war
weapons: an AK-47
assault rifle and five
spare magazines
containing 30 rounds
each.
Although he said he was
treated well by Triple
Canopy, the firm that
subcontracted Global
Guard's services,
Maturana was indignant
when he found out how
much profit Pizarro was
making.
The U.S. firm paid
Pizarro between 8,000
and 15,000 dollars a
month for each
mercenary, more than 10
times what they were
getting. "He pocketed
about 10,000 dollars for
every one of us," he
said.
The former soldier says
that Triple Canopy
offered him a job with
them at 15,000 dollars a
month, because of his
professionalism. But
Pizarro did not like
this move at all, and
physically assaulted the
two brothers, kidnapping
them for six days, after
which they were rescued
by Fijian guards.
They returned to Chile
without having been paid
any of their wages.
Another of their
brothers, who had
travelled to Iraq later
on, also had difficulty
in leaving the country.
Maturana said Pizarro's
firm was "a mafia", but
he defended the work he
did in Iraq.
"I think it's degrading
to say that former
members of the Chilean
military are
mercenaries, because
that isn't the case. I
wasn't a mercenary or a
hired killer, I didn't
kill Iraqis, I just
protected buildings and
people," he said.
On the occasion of the
UNWG visit, Senator
Navarro met with Defence
Minister José Goñi, who
told him that the
Chilean government has
every intention of
signing and ratifying
the 1989 Convention.
"Now it's in the hands
of the Foreign Office,
which hasn't so far
regarded it as a
priority," Navarro said.
The results of the
experts' investigations
will be presented to the
Human Rights Council and
the UN General Assembly
in September.
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