BAGHDAD — In the days after Usama Abbass was shot dead in a Baghdad traffic circle by security guards working for Blackwater USA, his brother visited the U.S.-run National Iraqi Assistance Center seeking compensation.
Like other Iraqis who have done the same, he learned a harsh truth: The center in Baghdad's Green Zone handles cases of Iraqis claiming death or damages due to military action, but not due to actions of private contractors such as Blackwater, who work in Iraq for the U.S. government, private agencies and other governments.
"There will be no compensation because the American Army did not kill your brother," an apologetic U.S. soldier told Abbass' brother, who did not want his name published.
There is no civilian counterpart to the assistance center in Iraq, leaving the families of as many as 19 Iraqis killed by private security contractors in the last month searching for other means to address abuses by private security contractors.
There is no precedent for holding Western security contractors accountable in court, in Iraq or the U.S., for injuries or deaths suffered by Iraqi civilians.
Seventeen Iraqis, including Abbass, were killed Sept. 16, according to Iraqi officials, when Blackwater guards opened fire after a U.S. diplomat was escorted back to the heavily secured Green Zone. Two Iraqis were killed in an Oct. 9 incident involving another private security company.
Nobody knows how many Iraqis have died at the hands of such contractors because of the secrecy with which security firms operate here. The victims are among untold thousands of civilians who have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
The white Volkswagen Golf that Abbass was driving when he was killed in September sits outside his brother's house in Baghdad. Its windshield is peppered with bullet holes. A jagged-edged, baseball-sized hole in the roof came from ferocious incoming fire, said his brother, who was in the passenger seat when the shooting erupted.
Four families, including Abbass', filed a lawsuit against Blackwater USA in U.S. federal court in Washington on Oct. 11, seeking unspecified damages.
The family of Marani "Maro" Ohannes -- she had been identified by Iraqi authorities as Marani Oranis -- a woman shot to death Oct. 9 by guards from an Australian-owned security company, Unity Resources Group, has issued a statement demanding that Unity "make amends following this appalling tragedy."
