YANK SAYS SISTER’S SLAY IN IRAQ SHOWS CONTRACTORS OUT OF CONTROL
By Nancy Dillon
New York Daily News, NY
Oct 21 2007
His sister was driving two women and a child through Baghdad on Oct. 9
when private security contractors for a U.S. envoy opened fire on
her white Oldsmobile and killed her.
Now Daniel Dishchekenian, who lives just outside Los Angeles in
Glendale, Calif., wants answers in his sister’s tragic death –
especially because the subcontractors, who are paid with American
taxpayer dollars, are immune from prosecution.
"This will happen to other innocent people if the American government
doesn’t take some strong action. They’ll keep shooting without any
concern," Dishchekenian, 62, said.
"I understand these guards want to protect our soldiers and our people,
but they have to think logically. When a suicide bomber drives to you,
they’re not coming at you with four people in the car – three of them
women," he said from his middle-class home. "I think these guards,
they’re not well trained."
Dishchekenian’s sister Marani Ohannes, a 48-year-old Armenian
Christian, was driving home from a church service when she was shot.
She died along with her female front-seat passenger in the barrage
of some 40 bullets.
It was the second fatal shooting of civilians in Iraq by private
security guards hired to protect U.S. contractors in less than a month.
On Sept. 16, guards working for the security subcontractor Blackwater
USA killed 17 Iraqis in a shootout in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.
The incident sparked international outrage after witnesses charged
the Blackwater guards sprayed automatic gunfire indiscriminately
without being shot at.
In the case of Ohannes’ death, the contractors worked for Dubai-based
Unity Resources Group.
The guards were subcontracted by the North Carolina-based consulting
firm RTI International and had just completed a personnel escort in
a convoy of white SUVs.
"The investigation is ongoing," said RTI spokeswoman Lisa Bistreich.
"We’re doing our own investigation as well as Unity and the [U.S.]
State Department."
Unity officials released a statement saying Ohannes’ car failed to
stop in response to hand signals and a warning flare.
"Maybe they gave hand signals, but she didn’t know what to do," said
Dishchekenian, a retired computer programmer who left Iraq in 1970
when Ohannes was only 11.
He said Ohannes’ husband died two years ago.
They have three surviving daughters, Nora, 20; Karon, 18, and Alice 13.
"My goal right now is to get the girls out of Iraq so somebody can
take care of them," he said.