FUNERAL FOR 2 SLAIN IN SECURITY SHOOTING
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra
Associated Press
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Oct 10 2007
BAGHDAD (AP) – Weeping mourners called for justice Wednesday at a
funeral for two Armenian Christian women killed while driving in
Baghdad – the second shooting of civilians involving a security firm
linked to U.S. government-financed work in Iraq in less than a month.
The funeral Mass for Marou Awanis and Geneva Jalal, who died in
Tuesday’s shooting, was held at the Virgin Mary Church. Awanis’ three
daughters cried and other female relatives wailed over the caskets,
adorned only with a golden cross.
Iraqi authorities blamed the deaths on guards working for Unity
Resources Group, a security company owned by Australian partners but
with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates.
Unity, which provides protection for USAID contractor RTI
International, said an investigation was under way, but initial
findings showed its security team fired after a car failed to stop
despite "an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and
a signal flare."
Statements from both Unity and RTI have made clear the guards were
not escorting RTI clients when the shooting occurred.
Witnesses and police said it appeared that Awanis, who was driving,
was trying to stop when the shooting began.
The Rev. Kivork Arshlian urged the government to punish those
responsible despite the immunity that has generally been enjoyed by
foreign security contractors in Iraq.
"This is a crime against humanity in general and against Iraqis in
particular. Many other people were killed in a similar way," he said.
"We call upon the government to put an end to these killings."
He demanded that those responsible be held accountable in Iraq.
"This security company should leave the country. Those who committed
this crime should be punished because they claimed the lives of two
people," he said. "We do not want a trial in Australia, which we
would know nothing about."
His comments reflected the growing anger against the private security
companies – nearly all based in the United States, Britain and other
Western countries – as symbols of the lawlessness in Iraq since the
U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"What is the use of the word ‘sorry?’" screamed Nora Jalal, Awanis’
daughter and a student at Baghdad’s Technology University.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the shooting was "part of
a series of reckless actions by some security companies."
The deaths of the two women – including one who used the white car
as a taxi to raise money for her family – came a day after the Iraqi
government gave U.S. officials a report demanding hefty payments and
the ouster from Iraq of embattled Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater USA
for a shooting last month that left at least 17 civilians dead.
The Blackwater guards implicated in the Sept. 16 shooting also were
protecting American specialists working under USAID contracts on
development projects in Iraq, highlighting the difficult balance
facing Western agencies trying to help rebuild Iraq while keeping
their own staff safe.
Tuesday’s killings were certain to sharpen government demands to curb
the expanding array of security firms in Iraq watching over diplomats,
aid groups and others.
Unity provides security services to RTI International, a group based
in Research Triangle Park, N.C., that promotes governance projects
in Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Both Unity and RTI acknowledged a security contract between them
but said RTI staffers were not present at the shooting in Baghdad’s
Karradah district.
A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said RTI was under contract by USAID but
was responsible for its own security. "USAID does not direct the
security arrangements of contractors," Mirembe Nantongo said.
According to the USAID Web site, RTI has about $450 million in U.S.
government contracts to work on governance projects in Iraq. USAID
is a semiautonomous arm of the State Department that manages U.S. aid
programs.
Michael Priddin, chief operating officer of Unity, told The Associated
Press the firm was working with Iraqi authorities "to find out the
results of the shooting incident. … We are trying to work out a
true picture of what happened."
In a statement Tuesday night, Priddin said, "We deeply regret this
incident."
Iraqi government officials, police and witnesses said guards working
for Unity fired on a white Oldsmobile as it approached their convoy,
killing the two women before speeding away. The incident occurred
near a Unity facility in Karradah.
Four armored SUVs – three white and one gray – were about 100 yards
from a main intersection in the Shiite-controlled district, according
to Iraqi accounts. As the car moved into the crossroads, the Unity
guards threw a smoke bomb in an apparent bid to warn the driver not
to come closer, said policeman Riyadh Majid, who saw the shooting.
Two of the Unity guards then opened fire. The driver tried to stop,
but was killed along with her passenger. Two of three people in the
back seat were wounded.
Police said they collected 19 spent 5.56 mm shell casings, ammunition
commonly used by U.S. and NATO forces and most Western security
organizations. The pavement was stained with blood and covered with
shattered glass.
Majid said the convoy raced away after the shooting. Iraqi police
collected the bodies and towed the car.
A second policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
he feared retribution, said the guards were masked and wore khaki
uniforms. He said one left the vehicle and started to shoot at the car,
while another opened fire from the open back door of an SUV.
Awanis’ sister-in-law, Anahet Bougous, said the woman had been using
her car to drive government employees to work to raise money for her
three daughters after her husband died during heart surgery last year.
An Iraqi investigation of the Blackwater shooting on Sept. 16 was
ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and called for the company
to pay $8 million in compensation to the families of each of the 17
victims. The commission also said Blackwater guards had killed 21
other Iraqis since it began protecting American diplomats.
Unity also has come under scrutiny before.
In March 2006, the company issued an statement of sympathy after
one of its guards was blamed for shooting a 72-year-old Iraqi-born
Australian, Kays Juma, at a Baghdad checkpoint.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Juma was killed
because he was in a car that failed to stop. Unity said multinational
forces and Iraqi police also were present at the checkpoint at
the time.
Unity provides armed guards and security training throughout Iraq.
Its heavily armed teams are Special Forces veterans from Australia,
the United States, New Zealand and Britain – as well as former law
enforcement officers from those countries.
In other violence Wednesday, a roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military
convoy in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi bystander and wounding three
others, police said.
The explosion in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karradah
also damaged a Humvee, a police officer said. The U.S. military had
no immediate comment and no American casualties were reported.
U.S. soldiers quickly sealed off the area and U.S. Apache helicopters
circled to provide support.
Another roadside bomb targeted a U.S. convoy in eastern Baghdad,
police said, but no casualties were reported.
In northern Iraq, a suicide bomber slammed his minibus into blast
walls at the offices of a key Kurdish political party, killing a party
official and a guard, and wounding five other guards, the party said.
The attack targeted a regional office of the Kurdish Democratic Party,
or KDP, some 13 miles outside the northern Iraqi city of Mosul,
according to party spokesman Ahmed Tawfiq. KDP is led by Massoud
Barzani, president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been a hotbed of guerrilla
activity, and the scene of many bombings, drive-by shootings and
assassination attempts.
Also Wednesday, a parked car bomb exploded near a market in Saddam’s
hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, killing a policeman
and a civilian, and wounding another policeman and three civilians.
___
Associated Press writers Katarina Kratovac, Sinan Salaheddin and
Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this story.
(This version CORRECTS spelling of KDP leader’s first name to Massoud,
not Masoud.)
photo: A sibling of Marou Awanis, one of two Christian women killed
Tuesday in Baghdad by members of a private security firm, mourns
during a funeral service outside the Armenian Orthodox Virgin Mary
Church, Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007. Weeping mourners
called for justice Wednesday during a funeral Mass for two Armenian
Christian women killed the day before at an intersection in Baghdad,
the second shooting of civilians involving a heavily armed security
firm linked to U.S. government-financed work in Iraq in less than a
month. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)