[A-List] Private security watch: Group 4

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Group 4 security firm pulls guards out of West Bank

Company acts after Guardian investigation reveals how armed patrols work
with Israeli settlers to control Palestinians

Peter Lagerquist and Jonathan Steele in Jerusalem
Wednesday October 9, 2002
The Guardian

The security conglomerate Group 4 Falck, which pioneered the private
contracting of detention facilities and prisons in Britain, has decided to
withdraw the private guards employed by one of its offshoots at Israeli
settlements in the West Bank after the Guardian raised questions about their
behaviour and the legality of their role.

The company, the world's second biggest security firm, took a controlling
stake earlier this year in an Israeli security company, Hashmira, which
employs at least 100 armed guards at settlements.

A Guardian investigation in the settlement of Kedumim showed that Hashmira's
guards work closely with Israel's military and security apparatus. In the
name of "security" the guards, many of whom are settlers, routinely prevent
Palestinian villagers from cultivating their own fields, travelling to
schools, hospitals and shops in nearby towns, and receiving emergency
medical assistance.

Intimidation and harassment are common, causing many villagers to fear for
their lives.

With prisons in the United States, Australia and South Africa, as well as
the UK, Group 4 Falck has earned a reputation for pushing private security
into new domains.

Kedumim, all gleaming limestone villas and lush lawns, shares a border with
the centuries-old Palestinian village of Kafr Qaddum.

At a gate across Kafr Qaddum's only paved access road, cut by a new street
connecting two Kedumim neighbourhoods, we watched a Hashmira guard stop a
Palestinian minibus. "No one can drive through. We allow the teachers and a
few others who we recognise by sight to go through on foot. Everyone else
has to use alternative routes," said the guard, who was carrying a
submachine gun.

The yellow metal barrier was erected four months ago, even though the sentry
admitted there have been no "security incidents" involving the villagers.
Less than a mile down the road, in the office of Kafr Qaddum's mayor, Ahmad
Abbas, half a dozen local men talked about the gate as a prison door.

Kedumim was established in 1976 and has expanded relentlessly around the
4,000-strong Palestinian community, gradually expropriating close to a fifth
of its land.

Before the intifada began two years ago, villagers could drive through the
intersection and get to the markets, university and medical facilities in
Nablus in about 20 minutes. Now it takes five hours on a series of winding,
dirt roads through the surrounding countryside.

The men do not understand why. "Our village didn't take part in this
intifada," said Bashar, 32, a farmer.

Their gradual isolation has pushed local unemployment to 80%, while 100
students who used to attend university in Nablus have dropped out. Access to
education and medical care has also been severely restricted. "Several women
were obliged to give birth in the village because they could not reach the
hospital in time," said Majed, a nurse.

The people of Kafr Qaddum reserve a special fear for a Hashmira guard called
Danny, from Kedumim. "He's Russian but wears a hat like a cowboy. He is full
of hatred," Majed said. "He stopped ambulances from entering the village. He
shot in the air above my brother."

Yesha, the settlers' umbrella organisation, states that it sees private
security as "assisting" the Israeli army in "carrying out its mission in the
territories". For this reason a number of settlements have hired security
firms to patrol roads in the West Bank.

Hashmira's corporate discourse uses the language of counter-insurgency. As
the company's president, Yigal Shermeister, writes in a company newsletter:
"In normal times, the security division deals primarily with guarding
property and persons.

"Suddenly, without any advance warning, they were required to carry out
missions similar to those usually performed by the police and the border
police. We had to recruit high-quality personnel and, in a very short time,
to train them to use long-range weapons for facing new risk factors: an
enemy population equipped with firearms."

With 230,000 employees in more than 80 countries, Group 4 Falck is at the
vanguard of a globalising private security industry projected to earn
revenues of $200bn (£135bn) by 2001. Group 4 Falck, based in Denmark, paid
$30m in March for a 50% stake in Hashmira, Israel's largest private security
company.

Along with about 20 similar companies operating in the West Bank, Hashmira
benefits indirectly from the extensive subsidies which the govern ment gives
settlements to pay for security.

Group 4 Falck asserts that it works ethically, "both nationally and
internationally on the basis of principles regarding such issues as human
rights, racism and child labour".

But reports last month in the Danish newspaper Politiken that Hashmira, its
new acquisition, was operating in the West Bank sparked outrage among Danish
MPs and human rights experts.

"They are making money off people's misery and are complicit in the
maintenance of settlements which the UN has with absolute clarity deemed
illegal," said the Danish Socialist MP Soren Sondergaard.

UN security council resolution 446, passed in 1979, affirms that Israeli
settlements are illegal, in accordance with article 49 of the fourth Geneva
convention, which prohibits the transfer of a civilian population to
occupied territory. That is also the position of the EU, whose rotating
presidency Denmark holds.

Group 4 Falck's chief executive officer, Lars Norby Johansen, ordered a
review of Hashmira's role in the West Bank.

After the Guardian gathered evidence on the ground in Kedumim, it put new
questions to Group 4 Falck.

Mr Johansen replied in a written statement: "The legal advice we have
received is that these guarding services are not contravening any laws.
However, we are actively seeking further clarification to be absolutely sure
of this position."

On Monday Group 4 Falck went further and announced that it would pull
Hashmira's guards out of the West Bank.

Mr Johansen said: "Even if our investigation clearly indicates that our
activities on the West Bank do not entail a breach of human rights, it is
not enough for us to be legally in the clear.

"In some situations there are also other criteria, which we must take into
consideration. And to avoid any doubt about whether Group 4 Falck respects
international conventions and human rights, we have decided to leave the
West Bank."

According to a company statement published yesterday, the guards'
assignments in the West Bank constitute only 1% of Hasmira's total
operations.

It says: "The main conclusion of the now completed, impartial legal
assessment is that Hashmira's operations are not per se in breach of current
international conventions and international law."

Controlling interests

Group 4 Falck's operations worldwide include:

Israel

Hashmira, the largest security company operating in the West Bank

Britain

The first privatised prison, the Wolds in East Yorkshire. Second contract to
run Buckley Hall prison in Rochdale, Lancashire, withdrawn by the
government. Company has suffered several embarrassments, including an
attempted breakout at Yarl's Wood "immigration centre" near Bedford, which
it runs, resulting in a damage bill of nearly £100m

South Africa

Africa's first private prison, Mangaung. Company said to be charging the
government $10 per prisoner per day

Australia

Five-year contract to operate Victoria's Port Phillip prison, which houses
600 prisoners