UN on the Offensive Against Iraq Mercenaries

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38537

SANTIAGO, Jul 13 (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. snip

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.