Foreign guards in Iraq work in legal grey area

By Lin Noueihed

DUBAI (Reuters) - Foreign private security companies in Iraq are operating in a legal grey area that means their victims have little recourse to justice despite U.S. steps to increase supervision, contractors and lawyers say.

Dozens of U.S. and British-run military companies are running lucrative businesses with immunity from prosecution in Iraq, but are also very difficult to bring to account abroad.

The Pentagon and State Department agreed in December to improve supervision of private security contractors following a review sparked by a September shooting in Iraq in which guards from U.S. firm Blackwater are accused of killing 17 Iraqis.

Foreign contractors at an Iraqi security conference in Dubai said they welcomed tighter rules on the use of deadly force, but expressed doubt over whether Iraqi laws would be enforced fairly.

"There is no other country in the world today where PSCs operate immune from local laws ... I'm certain that will change," said Timothy Mills, head of the American Chamber of Commerce of Iraq and a lawyer representing private security companies (PSCs) and the Iraqi government.

"There have been no criminal prosecutions of ... a PSC employee or company in the United States ... It does speak to the need for reform in this area."

A 2000 law brought military contractors working with U.S. troops abroad under U.S. criminal law.

And U.S. lawmakers passed a bill in October that seeks to expand that to all government contractors in Iraq, but it is hard to investigate cases in Iraq and bring the evidence required to prosecute under criminal law.