This War on Want report examines the rapid expansion of private military and security companies (PMSCs). It argues that increased PMSC involvement in conflict zones raises numerous concerns, ranging from inherent problems of transparency and accountability to concerns about war profiteering. There is now an urgent need for the UK government to bring PMSC activities within the compass of both legal and democratic control.
PMSCs sell security and military services at home and overseas. Over the last decade these companies have moved from the periphery of international politics into the corporate boardroom, becoming a ‘normal’ part of the military sector. They have grown to become a central component of US and UK military activity and are now a multi-million dollar enterprise. This growth has been caused by the desire of governments to maintain their global reach while evading accountability from a general public increasingly unwilling to pay the costs of war.
The increased used of PMSC in conflict zones raises a number of concerns:
- National armed forces in democratic countries are accountable through both the political and legal processes. The same channels of accountability do not apply to PMSCs and their employees, who are subject to the terms of their contract.
- Ascertaining the full scope of human rights abuses committed by PMSCs is nigh impossible, but the evidence available is adequate to demonstrate the scale of the threat posed by PMSCs. They have been linked to many human rights abuse cases, including cases in Bosnia, Guantanamo Bay and at Abu Ghraib.
- PMSCs play a greater role in the weapons trade, easily obtaining armaments and channelling them into conflict situations. For example, LifeGuard Systems, which protected diamond fields in Sierra Leone, was strongly believed to have shipped arms during the civil war there to the rebel forces.
- Weak governments and rebel groups, especially in Africa, have relied on PMSC expertise and force in numerous conflicts, and they are credited with shifting the balance of wars in Angola, Croatia and Sierra Leone.
The UK government demonstrated that it was acutely aware of the problems posed by PMSCs when it published its Green Paper on PMSCs in 2002. However, more than four years have passed since the Green Paper and yet there has been no move to regulate PMSC operations. Actions that need to be taken include:
- The UK government must move towards legislation to control the PMSC sector as an urgent priority. Self-regulation by the industry is not an option.
- Legislation must outlaw PMSC involvement in all forms of direct combat and combat support, understood in their widest possible senses.
- All other PMSC services must be made subject to individual licensing requirements and open to prior parliamentary and public scrutiny. In addition, there must also be an open register of PMSCs in order to provide an opportunity to filter out companies with poor records.
- Strict controls should be placed on the revolving door to ensure that senior defence or security officials or ministers of state are not allowed to take up any lobbying role for a PMSC for five years after completing their government service.
- Any government department which outsources a service to a PMSC must remain fully responsible for the conduct of that PMSC.
