Global Policy Forum

Mercenaries working for private military companies could be hired for international peacekeeping duties, the government has suggested.

The long-awaited consultation paper says "reputable" private firms may be able to do a better, more cost-effective job than forces like the United Nations.

In the foreword, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says "a strong and reputable private military sector might have a role in enabling the UN to respond more rapidly and effectively to crises". But the Labour backbencher Andrew Mackinlay has called the proposals "repugnant".

The Green Paper was prompted by the Arms-to-Africa affair four years ago, which led to claims that the UK Government had connived with the British private military company - Sandline International - in the illegal export of arms to Sierra Leone. The Foreign Office is emphasising that it is a consultation document, putting forward options for discussion and not specific policy proposals.

But it says that given the way the world is changing, the business of providing private military services is likely to grow. Therefore, a licensing system may be desirable to try to distinguish between different private military companies. It says that in Africa private companies often have greater respect for human rights than government forces do.

'Offensive'

And they may to do a better, more cost-effective job than the United Nations peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), which costs $600m (£420m) a year.

In the foreword Mr Straw says: "Today's world is a far cry from the 1960s when private military activity usually meant mercenaries of the rather unsavoury kind involved in post-colonial or neo-colonial conflicts." The paper adds that the use of private military companies raises important concerns about human rights, sovereignty and accountability. The document is likely to lead to a heated political debate as some MPs want no use of private companies at all.

Mr Mackinlay, a member of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said it was "breathtaking in the extreme" that Mr Straw would "even contemplate giving such companies a veneer of respectability".

"It would be deeply offensive, an abdication of the responsibilities of government and agencies with the high ideals of the UN, for this to happen," he said. "It would create the potential for wrongdoing by companies that could then dissolve themselves and lose themselves in remote parts of the world, unaccountable for their conduct or stewardship of war."

He said the foreign affairs committee, and other MPs who had been calling for the Green Paper, had expected it to herald legislation outlawing either recruitment of mercenaries in the UK or companies organising arms sales to mercenary companies. "At the very least, we expected much tighter controls," he added.

Better regulation

Colonel Tim Spicer, the former Sandline head who now runs Strategic Consulting International, said private military companies would never be a substitute for forces like the British Army.

"But there are certain circumstances where the quick deployment of a private military company is going to save lives and stabilise the situation," he said.

Respectable companies were already self-regulated and were responsible both to their shareholders and the law, said Col Spicer. Now the Green Paper aimed to create a system where organisations like the UN could use such companies because they had been vetted and licenced.

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