Although the State Department is reviewing its policies about contractors in the wake of the Blackwater massacre last month, justice seems slow in coming or not at all for those mercenaries that slaughtered 17 civilians and wounded dozens. While the Bush Administration does nothing, Iraqis are going to court and the U.N. is demanding that the perpetrators be tried for war crimes.
From Yahoo News:
The killing of 17 Iraqis in a shooting involving U.S. security firm Blackwater last month has created tensions between Baghdad and Washington and sparked calls for tighter controls on private contractors, who are immune from prosecution in Iraq.
Ivana Vuco, the U.N.'s senior human rights officer in Iraq, told a news conference that private security contractors were still subject to international humanitarian law.
"Investigations as to whether or not crimes against humanity, war crimes, are being committed and obviously the consequences of that is something that we will be paying attention to and advocating for," she told a news conference.
Maybe this is one of the reasons why Bush and his neo-con friends hate the U.N. so much. Accountability and justice for American actions overseas? Bush doesn't even like those things here at home, let alone in Baghdad where he has set his cowboy friends loose on the country. We'll see if the U.N. can muster the strength to actually try these killers in a court of law.
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