US pull-back from Iraq will hit private contractors

By Missy Ryan

BAGHDAD, Dec 30 (Reuters) - In Iraq, tens of thousands of private contractors from poor countries like Nepal, Pakistan or Peru keep the U.S. military on its feet, driving trucks, scrubbing floors, and ladling out food at sprawling U.S. bases. But the role of Iraq's multi-billion-dollar contracting business will change next year as Washington draws down troop levels and Iraq assumes control for maintaining a fragile calm.

Change may mean fewer jobs for workers from the developing world who have been willing to risk their lives to join the 200,000 private contractors who outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq.

The risks are real. More than 400 foreign contractors have been killed in Iraq since 2003, according to an independent compilation. They include U.S. citizens, Fijiian, Pakistani and Nepalese.

For some in countries where unemployment is high and wages are low, it's a deal worth making.

A former soldier from Peru, who did not wish to be named, came to Iraq in 2005 to work for a private security firm. In his new work in Baghdad he could make 60 percent more than he did as a bodyguard for wealthy businessmen back home.

He has paid off debts, his children are studying in private school, and he is hoping to stay in Iraq as long as possible.

He shrugs off the risks in Iraq. His own country, Peru, has its own bloody past. "It's nothing new for us," he said.

Such non-Iraqi, non-American contractors can earn five to 10 times in Iraq what they would at home, said Doug Brooks, head of the International Peace Operations Association.

"There is huge demand for these jobs," he said.

The contracting business has exploded in almost six years of war in Iraq, especially as a leaner U.S. military strives to ensure soldiers are doing only what they do best -- fighting.

Through last year, the United States awarded $85 billion in private contracts directly supporting the Iraq war, a fifth of total Iraq spending, the Congressional Budget Office has said.

The main contract for food, fuel, and other basics, now awarded to giant, politically connected U.S. contractor KBR Inc. and other firms, alone was worth $22 billion.

MIXED RECORD

At times the Iraq contracting business has earned a bad name, accused of fraud, waste, shoddy work, and even human trafficking. The Pentagon is blamed for improper oversight.

Five guards for U.S. security firm Blackwater have been charged over the 2007 killing of 14 unarmed Iraqis in Baghdad, which outraged Iraqis.

From Jan. 1, contractors in Iraq will be subject to Iraqi law, removing them from what critics called a legal black hole.

The U.S. military is also probing whether Bangladeshi and other workers were illegally trafficked to Iraq with promises of KBR jobs, and says it could punish firms that mistreat workers.

As the United States looks toward an end-2011 deadline for pulling its 143,000 troops out of Iraq, the number of contractor jobs is expected to dwindle along with overall U.S. needs.

That is unwelcome news for Alhaji Musa Sendor, a Sierra Leonean trying to land a job in Iraq. He has heard he can earn thousands of dollars a month, a fortune by local standards.

He worked in Kuwait, but has been unemployed for months, and is growing desperate. "People walk up and down the streets here, but there is no job for them," he said by phone from Freetown.

Iraq's private security industry is still hoping for work protecting foreign businessmen as reconstruction picks up.

"Those people are going to have to be guarded," said Lawrence Peter, who heads an Iraq private security association. (Additional reporting by Christo Johnson in Freetown)