Editing Mercenary (section)

==Private military companies==
{{Main|Private military company}}

The [[private military company]] (PMC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as security contractors or private military contractors. PMC contractors are civilians (in governmental, international, and civil organizations) authorized to accompany an army to the field; thus, the term ''civilian contractor''. PMCs may use armed force, defined as: "legally established enterprises that make a profit, by either providing services involving the potential exercise of [armed] force in a systematic way and by military means, and/or by the transfer of that potential to clients through training and other practices, such as logistics support, equipment procurement, and intelligence gathering".<ref>[http://www.privatemilitary.org/definition.html "What is a Private Military Company or PMC?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002210947/http://www.privatemilitary.org/definition.html |date=2 October 2006 }} Web article cites Ortiz, Carlos. "Regulating Private Military Companies: States and the Expanding Business of Commercial Security Provision". In L. Assassi, D. Wigan and K. van der Pijl (eds). ''Global Regulation. Managing Crises After the Imperial Turn.'' Houndmills / New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 206.</ref>

Private paramilitary forces are functionally mercenary armies, though they may serve as security guards or military advisors; however, national governments reserve the right to control the number, nature, and armaments of such [[private army|private armies]], arguing that, provided they are not pro-actively employed in front-line combat, they are not mercenaries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/peacekpg/reform/2001/private.htm |title=Privatizing Protection |access-date=11 October 2005 |archive-date=12 October 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051012163625/http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/peacekpg/reform/2001/private.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> In February 2002, a British [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]] (FCO) report about PMCs noted that the demands of the military service from the UN and international civil organizations might mean that it is cheaper to pay PMCs than use soldiers.<ref name="BBC2002">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2403517.stm "Dogs of war into doves of peace"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060313144929/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2403517.stm |date=13 March 2006 }}. ''[[BBC News]]'', 11 November 2002</ref> PMC "civilian contractors" tend to have poor reputations among professional government soldiers<ref name="a backup site">Jonathan Finer (10 September 2005). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090902136.html "Security Contractors in Iraq Under Scrutiny after Shootings"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025145015/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090902136.html |date=25 October 2017 }}. ''[[The Washington Post]]''. ([http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/occupation/2005/0910contractors.htm a backup site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070116123138/http://www.globalpolicy.org//security//issues/iraq/occupation/2005/0910contractors.htm |date=16 January 2007 }})</ref> and officers—the U.S. Military Command has questioned their war zone behavior.<ref name="a backup site"/>

In September 2005, Brigadier General Karl Horst, deputy commander of the Third Infantry Division charged with Baghdad security after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said of [[DynCorp]] and other PMCs:

{{Quote|These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force... They shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place.<ref name="a backup site"/>}}

In 2004, the US and Coalition governments hired PMCs for security in Iraq. In March 2004, four Blackwater employees escorting food supplies and other equipment were [[2004 Fallujah ambush|attacked and killed in Fallujah]] in a videotaped attack; the killings and subsequent dismemberments were a cause for the [[First Battle of Fallujah]].<ref>{{cite news |first1=Spencer E. |last1=Ante |first2=Stan |last2=Crock |url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_22/b3885116.htm |title=The Other U.S. Military: The private contractor biz is hot, vast, and largely unregulated. Is it out of control? |work=[[Business Week]] |date=31 May 2004 |access-date=26 November 2007 |archive-date=11 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211044611/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_22/b3885116.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|right|Private military contractor in [[Badakhshan Province]], [[Afghanistan]], 2006]]

Afghan war operations also boosted the business.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121504850.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Up to 56,000 more contractors likely for Afghanistan, congressional agency says |first=Walter |last=Pincus |date=16 December 2009 |access-date=12 May 2010 |archive-date=1 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601181216/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121504850.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The United States has made extensive use of PMCs in Afghanistan since 2001, mostly in a defensive role.<ref name="Neville, Leigh p.56">Neville, Leigh (2008). ''Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan'', London: Osprey, p. 56</ref> PMC teams have been used to guard bases and to protect VIPs from Taliban assassins, but almost never in offensive operations.<ref name="Neville, Leigh p.56"/> One mercenary stated about his work in Afghanistan: "We are there purely to protect the principals and get them out, we're not there to get into huge firefights with the bad guys". One team from DynCorp provided bodyguards for President [[Hamid Karzai]].<ref name="Neville, Leigh p.56"/>

===Colombia===
In 2006, a US congressional report listed a number of PMCs and other enterprises that have signed contracts to carry out anti-narcotics operations and related activities as part of [[Plan Colombia]]. Referring to the use of American PMCs in Colombia, the former US Ambassador to Colombia [[Myles Frechette]] has said: "Congress and the American people don't want any servicemen killed overseas. So it makes sense that if contractors want to risk their lives, they get the job".<ref name="Lynch">{{cite news |last1=Lynch |first1=Diego |title=The rise and dominance of Colombia's private military contractors |url=https://limacharlienews.com/south-america/colombian-private-military-contractors/ |access-date=28 May 2020 |publisher=Lima Charlie News |archive-date=14 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514160110/https://limacharlienews.com/south-america/colombian-private-military-contractors/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Not only have foreign PMCs worked in Colombia, but a disproportionate number of the mercenaries with PMCs are Colombian, as Colombia's long history of civil war has led to a surplus of experienced soldiers. Also, Colombian soldiers are much cheaper than soldiers from [[developed country|developed countries]].<ref name="Lynch"/> PMCs from several Middle Eastern countries have signed contracts with the Colombian Defense Ministry to carry out security or military activities.<ref>[http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article.php3?id_article=1253 "Private Security Transnational Enterprises in Colombia"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417203427/http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article.php3?id_article=1253|date=17 April 2008}}. José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective, February 2008.</ref>

===UN concerns over legality of PMCs===
The United Nations questions whether PMC soldiers are sufficiently accountable for their war zone actions. A common argument for using PMCs (used by the PMCs themselves), is that PMCs may be able to help combat [[genocide]] and civilian slaughter where the UN or other countries are unwilling or unable to intervene.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review |title=Policy Review |website=Hoover Institution |access-date=12 February 2019 |archive-date=8 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208210114/https://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>P. W. Singer (June 2003). [http://www.brookings.edu/views/articles/fellows/singer20030601.htm "Peacekeepers, Inc."] ''[[Policy Review]]''. [[The Brookings Institution]]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203201417/http://www.brookings.edu/views/articles/fellows/singer20030601.htm |date=3 December 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sandline.com/hotlinks/dogs_of_peace.html |title=Dogs of Peace |website=www.sandline.com |access-date=11 October 2005 |archive-date=2 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102175413/http://www.sandline.com/hotlinks/dogs_of_peace.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> Yet, after considering using PMCs to support UN operations, [[Kofi Annan]], the [[Secretary-General of the United Nations]], decided against it.<ref name="BBC2002" />

In October 2007, the United Nations released a two-year study that stated, that although hired as "security guards", private contractors were performing military duties. The report found that the use of contractors such as Blackwater was a "new form of mercenary activity" and illegal under [[international law]].

Most countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, are not signatories to the 1989 [[United Nations Mercenary Convention]] banning the use of mercenaries. A spokesman for the U.S. Mission to U.N. denied that Blackwater security guards were mercenaries, saying "Accusations that U.S. government-contracted security guards, of whatever nationality, are mercenaries is inaccurate and demeaning to men and women who put their lives on the line to protect people and facilities every day."<ref>{{cite news |last=Higgins |first=Alexander G. |date=17 October 2007 |title=US rejects UN mercenary report |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-17-3392316246_x.htm |work=[[USA Today]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |access-date=11 January 2017 |archive-date=30 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630165026/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-17-3392316246_x.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>