Condi apologises; will Iraqis expel mercenaries?

Condoleezza Rice has “apologised” for the civilians killed by the American mercenary force known as Blackwater USA. She was trying to prevent the expulsion of all the Blackwater employees from Iraq, as has already been ordered by the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

The Iraqi government decision followed an incident two days ago when Blackwater operatives — who provide security and bodyguarding services to American officials in Iraq, as well as to a number of others — opened fire on civilians, killing eight and wounding 13.

A statement from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri Al-Maliki, said Rice had apologised — both personally and on behalf of her government — and said the US would take steps to ensure that such a situation did not happen again.

It is to the credit of al-Maliki’s government — one of the few credits that it deserves — that it took a hard line against the mercenaries. These hired guns — including a number from South Africa (1 500 if some of the figures are to be believed) — have contributed to the murderous chaos that is Iraq. Estimates of the number of mercenaries currently operating in Iraq range from tens of thousands to 180 000.

Not unexpectedly, the mercenaries in Iraq are very willing to open fire on the locals and are, therefore, despised by the latter. And why shouldn’t Blackwater operatives treat the locals with any more respect? Their lives, after all, are less valuable than those of the employees of the US State Department protected by Blackwater. The result has been hatred from the Iraqi population towards the mercenary forces who ride roughshod over them. In 2004, four Blackwater operatives were killed in Fallujah and burnt. Their charred bodies were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River.

Now suddenly, in a brutal occupation where most sections of the elite of the native population are either pawns or puppets, the Iraqi government has developed the balls to object. In a not-very-profound statement, Jawad al-Bolani, the Interior Minister, said: “We can’t stay silent. Anyone who wants to have good relations with Iraq has to respect Iraqis.” Strangely (for a government set up and manipulated by the US), he insisted foreign “contractors” must respect Iraqi laws.

And, in a seemingly balls-ier step, the government said yesterday — in spite of Condi’s apology — that it will review the status of all the foreign mercenary groups (“security contractors”) that are in Iraq.

Balls aside, however, there really is not much that the Iraqi government can do beyond its anger and posturing — and Blackwater and the US military authorities know that only too well. Order 17 of the Coalition Provisional Authority — which the Iraqi government is bound by — grants the mercenaries immunity from prosecution by Iraqis.

Will the Iraqi government be willing to do the unthinkable and upset the Americans? Or will it accept Condi’s promise of a “fair and transparent investigation”, leave it to the US to do its thing and deal with the results (à la Abu Ghraib) and go on with its life comfortable in the knowledge that it did something to protect its citizens, lifting the (now temporary) ban on Blackwater when the uproar dies down and Moqtada al-Sadr finds something else to be angry about?

I must say I feel no sympathy when these mercenaries are killed in Iraq (and other parts of the world). If they are willing to put their lives on the line for some money (actually, lots of money) and are quite happy to treat as sub-human the people whose country they have opportunistically invaded … well, they deserve what’s coming to them. And hopefully it will be a lot.

Whatever route the Iraqi government decides to follow on this issue, a short-term cause for celebration is that the US has suspended all road trips in Iraq by its “diplomats” — outside the Green Zone. It seems even American diplomats can’t trust the US army to keep them safe; they need privatised security. Poor Iraqis.