October 12, 2007
Australia's Own Blackwater
With the hearings in Washington casting a harsh light on the activities of Blackwater, it's worth remembering that they are not the only private security company in Iraq whose actions have resulted in civilian fatalities. Earlier this week, employees of the Australian-owned firm Unity Resources Group opened fired on a taxi that approached too close to a convoy they were guarding and killed two women. A spokesman for the company claimed that all appropriate warnings were given and that the extreme response was justified by fears of a potential suicide bombing.
Accounts by eyewitnesses, however, paint a somewhat different picture. Although the car did indeed approach the convoy at speed and failed to stop after the immediate firing of flares (possibly because the driver panicked), it was eventually brought to a halt by a shot to its radiator. Only then, when the vehicle was stationary, did two URG guards leave their SUV to open fire on it, killing the driver and and one of the passengers. (A woman and child in the backseat survived.) Once they were dead, the guards then returned to their vehicle and, according to an Iraqi policeman, "sped off like gangsters".
The incident has, naturally, provoked outrage in Iraq and is not the first such killing that URG has been involved in. Last year, they were investigated over the fatal shooting of a 72-year old agriculture professor who was in a car that failed to stop at a checkpoint.
In their defence, the guards did take appropriate steps to warn off the approaching vehicle, but serious questions still need to be asked about their actions after the taxi came to a halt. The Iraqi Interior Ministry is planning to appoint a committee to investigate the incident, but seeing as an Australian company was involved, I think it only right and proper that an Australian Royal Commission be set up to conduct their own inquiries. We owe it to the families of the victims, the incensed Iraqi populace, and any of our nationals on the ground who may be doing positive work and face having their image tarnished and lives threatened as a result of this incident.
If you agree with me, then I urge you to send an email to our Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock demanding the immediate establishment of a Royal Commission into this tragedy. He can be contacted via this web page.
Posted by Warren at October 12, 2007 07:22 AM