| Tweet |
http://www.afpbb.com/article/war-unrest/2329434/2475314
イラクでの米民間警備会社、米政府が警告無視し規模拡大
2007年12月25日 00:05 発信地:ワシントンD.C./米国
イラクの首都バグダッド（Baghdad）中心部を走行する外国民間軍事会社の装甲車両（2007年10月31日撮影）。(c)AFP/ALI AL-SAADI
【12月24日 AFP】米政府は過去2年、イラクで活動する米民間軍事会社に対する監視が不足しているという専門家の警告を再三無視したばかりか、軍事会社の活動を拡大した。米ワシントンポスト（Washington Post）紙が24日に報じた。
米高官や軍事会社の証言や書類によると、防衛専門家、法律専門家、イラク政府高官は数度にわたり、米民間軍事会社の要員数万人を配備することの危険性を指摘していたという。
しかし国務省や国防総省は、民間軍事会社ブラックウオーター（Blackwater）要員による民間人射殺事件が発生するまで具体的対策を取らなかった。今年9月に同社要員が銃を乱射し民間人17人が死亡したこの事件で、米民間警備会社に対する国際的な非難が高まった。
米軍や国務省は人材不足から、補給部隊や軍事拠点、外交要人の警備に民間軍事会社の要員を雇用した。戦時における契約ではこれまでで最大規模となっている。
イラクにいる米民間軍事要員は、国防総省によると2万人、米政府監査院（Government Accountability Office）によると4万8000人に上る。
イラク内務省の門近くで運転手を射殺するなど、ブラックウオーター要員による攻撃的な戦術と相次ぐ銃撃事件で、イラク政府内からは非難の声が上がり、米軍内からも懸念の声が上がっている。
軍事会社の実績に対する議論が高まるなか国務省は2006年、ブラックウオーターほか民間軍事会社2社と36億ドル（4100億円）の複数年契約を結び、軍事会社の役割強化を担った。
国務省高官は同紙の取材に対し、同省とイラク政府との間でブラックウオーターについて会合が持たれたが、同社の活動に対して「重大な警告」は示されなかったと語った。
国防総省は、軍事会社を利用すれば経費が削減でき、兵士を武装勢力との戦闘などより重要な任務に配置できると主張する。ジェフ・モレル（Geoff Morell）同省報道官は「倉庫や部隊の警備よりも、兵力を悪者（bad guys）との戦いに有効に利用できると考えている」と強調した。
ブラックウオーター社は同紙の取材に対し、回答を拒否した。
事件を受けて、国務省と国防総省高官は今月初め、民間軍事要員に対して武器の使用や事故報告などを定めることで合意している。(c)AFP
=================================
ワシントン・ポスト英文記事 ⇒
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/23/ST2007122302511.html
Warnings Unheeded On Guards In Iraq
Despite Shootings, Security Companies Expanded Presence
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 24, 2007; Page A01
The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents.
The warnings were conveyed in letters and memorandums from defense and legal experts and in high-level discussions between U.S. and Iraqi officials. They reflected growing concern about the lack of control over the tens of thousands of private guards in Iraq, the largest private security force ever employed by the United States in wartime.
Neither the Pentagon nor the State Department took substantive action to regulate private security companies until Blackwater guards opened fire Sept. 16 at a Baghdad traffic circle, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and provoking protests over the role of security contractors in Iraq.
"Why is it they couldn't see this coming?" said Christopher Beese, chief administrative officer for ArmorGroup International, a British security firm with extensive operations in Iraq. "That amazes me. Somebody -- it could have been military officers, it could have been State -- anybody could have waved a flag and said, 'Stop, this is not good news for us.' "
Private security firms rushed into Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. The U.S. military, which entered the country with 130,000 troops, needed additional manpower to protect supply convoys, military installations and diplomats. Private security companies appeared "like mushrooms after a rainstorm," recalled Michael J. Arrighi, who has worked in private security in Iraq since 2004.
Last year, the Pentagon estimated that 20,000 hired guns worked in Iraq; the Government Accountability Office estimated 48,000.
On Feb. 7, 2006, Blackwater guards allegedly killed three Kurdish civilians outside the northern city of Kirkuk. That incident triggered demonstrations outside the U.S. Consulate and led Rizgar Ali, president of the Kirkuk provincial council, to complain to U.S. authorities in Kirkuk and Baghdad, Ali said in an interview. The incident was one of several shootings that caused friction between the U.S. and Iraqi governments..
On Christmas Eve 2006, a Blackwater employee killed the bodyguard of an Iraqi vice president in the Green Zone. Six weeks later, a Blackwater sniper killed three security guards for the state-run media network. On May 24, a Blackwater team shot and killed a civilian driver outside the Interior Ministry gates, sparking an armed standoff between the Blackwater guards and Iraqi security forces in downtown Baghdad.
By June 6, concerns about Blackwater had reached Iraq's National Intelligence Committee, which included senior Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials, including Maj. Gen. David B. Lacquement, the Army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence. Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, who heads the Interior Ministry's intelligence directorate, called on U.S. authorities to crack down on private security companies.
U.S. military officials told Kamal that Blackwater was under State Department authority and outside their control, according to notes of the meeting. The matter was dropped.
"We set this thing up for failure from the beginning," said T.X. Hammes, a retired Marine colonel who advised the new Iraqi army from January to March 2004. He added that private security guards regularly infuriated his Iraqi staff with their aggressive tactics and that he reported the problems "up the chain of command."
"We're just sorting it out now," Hammes said. "I still think, from a pure counterinsurgency standpoint, armed contractors are an inherently bad idea, because you cannot control the quality, you cannot control the action on the ground, but you're held responsible for everything they do."
（以下略）
(2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122302442_2.html
(3) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122302442_3.html
(4) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122302442_4.html
投稿コメント全ログ コメント即時配信 スレ建て依頼 削除コメント確認方法
題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。
掲示板,ＭＬを含むこのサイトすべての
一切の引用、転載、リンクを許可いたします。確認メールは不要です。
引用元リンクを表示してください。