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Working group on the use of mercenaries expresses concern over the killing of Iraqi civilians involving employees of private security company
The United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries expresses its concern over the indiscriminate shooting in a populated neighborhood of Baghdad, on 16 September 2007, involving employees of a foreign private security company [Blackwater] and resulting in the killing of over 10 Iraqi civilians, including children. The Working Group welcomes the investigations underway to clarify the facts of this and other prior reported incidents of killings of civilians in Iraq by employees of foreign private security companies. It notes that in a number of situations of low intensity armed conflict or post conflict these private security companies have been given immunity through bilateral Government agreements or decrees. Immunity which in many cases becomes a sort of impunity.