Private military companies that refuse to sign up to tougher standards on human rights and accountability will lose out on British government contracts under a plan laid out Friday. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said military and security contractors based in the UK will be asked to pledge to meet new standards under a code of conduct expected to be in place within months.
Miliband hopes a set of international standards to govern the work of all private military firms can be agreed by 2011. The British government move follows concern about the actions of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The world's largest military contractor, Xe _ formerly known as Blackwater _ has been investigated in the fatal shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians.
British diplomats said scrutiny of the companies needs to be tightened world-wide, particularly as a squeeze on defence budgets during the economic downturn means private contractors are likely to carry out an increasing number of tasks. Officials say private companies may in future take over duties like the training of foreign soldiers or police. In Iraq, the training of local security forces has been a key task for the British and US military.
``Our policy proposals need to be innovative if they are going to affect the wider industry,' Miliband said in a statement. ``We need to make sure any system of regulation we propose is based on international co-operation to improve standards of the industry in the UK, and more widely.'
Miliband said that the industry group, the British Association of Private Security Companies, would be responsible for drafting the British code, and enforcing standards. Some human rights groups said self-regulation is too risky for an often controversial industry. ``It would effectively grant them impunity to do whatever they like. This is not an ordinary industry, this is men with guns we're talking about,' Tim Hancock, campaigns director for Amnesty International, said in a statement.
Critics also complain that the new standards won't apply to all private contractors, and that possible sanctions against those who breach the rules are too weak. Of about 30 military contractors based in Britain, 17 are members of the industry group and would need to adhere to new standards.
British government contracts only amount to between one third and one quarter of the 1 billion pounds ($1.47 billion) annual turnover of UK based contractors, said Andy Bearpark, head of the British Association of Private Security Companies. But Bearpark said that, under the proposals, his organisation would be able to fine those who breach the new rules.
He said once new standards are agreed, companies which fail to sign up are likely to be shunned by major employers like governments and oil companies, he said. ``We've always had the slogan 'driving standards up and driving cowboys out' _ it now looks as though that phrase is ringing true,' Bearpark said.