United Nations Radio

They're recruited to fight in wars in countries other than their own, and their motivation is money. Mercenaries have been around since ancient Egypt.

But with the recent use of mercenaries in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the UN is trying to make sure that the international community can regulate the activities of private security and military companies. Diane Bailey has more.

DIANE: Two years ago, the General Assembly extended the mandate of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. The Assembly wanted to strengthen the existing UN Convention on the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, and to build on a Swiss Initiative that while useful, had too many limitations, according to Jose Luis Gomez del Prado, the Group's Rapporteur.

Gomez: One of the limitations is that this document is only for situations of armed conflict according to international humanitarian law. Actually at the present time there some 50 armed conflicts in the world and this definition does not convene to most of these 50 situations of armed conflict.

DIANE: Negotiations on the initiative proposed by Switzerland was restricted to industrial countries that had a security industry. Alexander Nikitin, the Chair of the Mercenaries Working Group, believes Switzerland would be happy to have its initiative be more expansive.

Nikitin: There should be international level of regulations. The UN, the international community should know who, what, where and how is doing in the area of international contracts for exporting military force or security services. We foresee that they will move toward the possibility of some international instruments based in the United Nations as a means for regulating private military and security companies.

DIANE: Mr. Gomez del Prado says current legislation on mercenaries does not allow anyone to pinpoint just who is a mercenary or how they should be regulated.

Gomez: For instance in Iraq, even with the definition, even if the US had been a state party to the Convention by the mere fact that in the definition it states that the mercenary has to be from another country, US citizens cannot be taken as mercenaries. So it is extremely difficult and this is why we have engaged in this process of proposing to the international community something that is additional to the International Convention on Mercenarism.

DIANE: The private contractor Blackwater, whose employees have been accused of abusing human rights in Iraq and who could not be prosecuted in Iraq, is now being prosecuted in the United States. Mr. Gomez del Prado wants to see an addition to the Convention that would address the obligations of UN member states to prevent violations of human rights. Member states would also be responsible for investigating and where appropriate prosecuting such violations, and providing remedies to the victims. This is especially important, Mr. Gomez del Prado says, in light of who is likely to become a mercenary.

Gomez: You find individuals with very bad human rights records, they have committed human rights abuses, and crimes against humanity even, but there are also very legitimate army officers who because they get better pay they go to the private company in Iraq. The problem is that these companies they start to sub-contract, and the new trend it seems is that they're subcontracting, because they are very effective, people who were working for warlords in Afghanistan.

DIANE: The United States, says Mr. Nikitin, knows the private security companies registered in the US, but what is missing he says is accountability, something he hopes the addition to the Convention will address. For UN Radio, this is Diane Bailey reporting.

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