N.Y. Times (December 7, 2008)

December 7, 2008

In Iraq, Anger at Guards, and Comfort Over Charges
By KATHERINE ZOEPF and TARIQ MAHER

BAGHDAD — On Nisour Square, here in the Iraqi capital, where at least 17 civilians were killed last year by guards working for the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, Iraqis reacted with satisfaction and anger to the news that five Blackwater guards had been indicted by the United States Justice Department.

“They started shooting randomly at people without any reason,” recalled Ali Khalf Selman, a traffic policeman who said he witnessed the killing of 21 people on the day of the shootings. “I wish I could see the criminals in person, and I hope that they will pay a price for killing people who just happened to be in the wrong place on that bad day.”

The shootings occurred on Sept. 16, 2007, as a Blackwater convoy traveled through Nisour Square, which was crowded with pedestrians, police officers and cars. The guards have said that they fired after coming under attack, and Blackwater has maintained that its guards did nothing wrong.

Iraq has not yet filed any claims against Blackwater, said an Iraqi official, who asked not to be identified because he had not been authorized to speak on the subject.

The Nisour Square shootings have had a deep impact on the Iraqi government’s relationship with the Bush administration, and immunity for security contractors became a major issue recently in negotiations of the security pact that lays the ground rules for American troops’ continuing presence in Iraq.

“This was one of the main issues in the pact,” said Shatha al-Abousi, a Sunni member of Parliament. “It was a big problem, giving immunity to American soldiers and bodyguards. But everywhere on earth the guilty one must pay. It is a good thing this issue was completely solved in the pact.”

Also this week, McClatchy Newspapers reported that about 1,000 men from several South Asian countries who had been hired by a subcontractor for the American military were held for months in conditions like slavery near Baghdad International Airport.

The men had paid middlemen to obtain jobs in Iraq with Al Najlaa International Catering Services, a Kuwait-based subcontractor to KBR, a contractor that provides services to the United States military, the McClatchy report said. When they arrived in Iraq, it said, they were held in cramped conditions in warehouses, without being given jobs, salaries or adequate food.

The American military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the laborers’ situation.

KBR responded with a brief statement, saying that it “in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behavior.” A spokeswoman for KBR, Heather L. Browne, wrote in an e-mail message that “KBR has been in discussions with the government on this issue and we will continue to monitor the situation.”

Joseph Logan, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said: “This seems to be a case of an unscrupulous employer going bad on its obligations to workers in an extremely dangerous environment. I haven’t traced the chain of contracts but it seems hard to believe that KBR wouldn’t be aware of the way their partners who provide them with labor hire employees. It’s hard to believe that these practices would be a complete surprise to the final contractor.”

In the northern city of Kirkuk on Saturday, a suicide bomber attacked a police academy, killing one person and wounding 15, the authorities said.

Saman Ghafour, a police captain who witnessed the attack, said that the suicide bomber appeared to be 12 to 16 years old. It was the second time in a week that a suicide bomber who appeared to be young had attacked an Iraqi police academy, and a leading Iraqi daily newspaper, Al Sabah Al Jadid, published an article suggesting that the use of children as suicide bombers was a new tactic of the insurgency.

Atheer Kakan and Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kirkuk, Iraq.