Armed conflicts the paramilitaries sow concern

By fashionlifeshopping 30/08/2022 1281 Views

At first glance, they have all official soldiers.Except that they do not belong to the army of a state: they are paramilitaries hired to fight in areas of foreign conflict.If the phenomenon is not new, it is growing, say the experts, worried to see countries transformed into war theaters by proxy by obscure groups, which escape international rules.

Publié le 29 mai 2021Janie Gosselin La Presse

Make the responsible state of the abuses of its mercenaries

The proliferation of paramilitaries in the hot spots of the globe worries specialists.The UN sounded the alarm in several regions.Three NGOs hope to move international law with a complaint filed in Moscow.

In videos relayed on social networks, men beat a Syrian before beheading and burning his body.They talk to each other in Russian.

The images started to circulate in 2017.Other shots of the same event in northern Syria were broadcast in 2019.

For journalists of the Russian daily newspaper Novaïa Gazeta, it was the central element of an investigation, which led to the identification of the victim and suspects.Human rights defense groups, for their part, hope to use it to force the private armies to account with a complaint filed in Moscow.

If Russia refuses to act, NGOs intend to bring the cause before the European Court of Human Rights.

The idea is to have a court of justice recognized that these are not mercenaries who would act according to their own initiative, but that it is the extension of a decision of the State to send them to the field, inoccurrence in Syria, and therefore that their abuses are the responsibility of the Russian State.

Clémence Bectarte, lawyer for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

Growing

The increasingly widespread appeal to private third parties in armed conflicts worries specialists.It is downright the nature of armed conflicts that is changed, with an "increasingly asymmetrical dynamic", noted in its latest report, presented last summer, the working group on the use of mercenariesfrom the United Nations High Commissioner to Human Rights.

"We are very concerned about the widespread increase in the use of private players.They are used to operate in conflict zones in various places in the world, "says Sorcha Macleod, member of the working group and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark.

Her colleagues and she is concerned about the repercussions for local populations, stressing that non -state actors are suspected of committing human rights violations and contributing to the intensification of conflicts.In Libya, for example, the UN worried during the ceasefire with its respect by private groups.

"One thing we have found is a complexification and diversification of these entities, and it contributes to prolonging conflicts," emphasizes Lilian Bobea, also a member of the working group and associate professor at the State University of Fitchburg, located in the Massachusetts.And violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.We have undoubtedly put more attention this year on this phenomenon of merger and competition of non -state contractual actors, because it becomes very complex.»»

Responsibility abroad

With their complaint filed in March on behalf of the brother of the victim beheaded in the video, the FIDH, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression and the Russian Center for Human Rights Memorial ask the Russian State to investigate, for murder and alleged war crimes committed by his nationals abroad.The Russian Criminal Code provides that there may be prosecution for offenses perpetrated outside its borders by its citizens.

Conflits armés Les paramilitaires sèment l’inquiétude

« À partir du moment où le droit russe prévoit ce qu’on appelle la responsabilité personnelle active, c’est-à-dire la responsabilité pénale des nationaux russes à l’étranger – contrairement au Canada, par exemple, pour la plus grande partie –, la Russie est dans une position où elle ne peut pas vraiment dire qu’elle n’a pas compétence»», analyse FrédéricMegret, professeur à l’Université McGill et codirecteur du Centre pour les droits de la personne et le pluralisme juridique.

The suspects targeted by the complaint are alleged members of the Wagner group, a nebulous paramilitary association, suspected of acting for the Kremlin abroad.

Russia has denied any link with the group, which would have operated in conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Libya, especially.

Wagner would be funded by the businessman Evguéni Prigojine, having close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Three journalists who were investigating the paramilitary society were killed in 2018 in the Central African Republic, in circumstances that have still not been elucidated.

A fan

All private groups hired in the field are not mercenaries: security companies, for example, are used by various countries, such as Canada, in particular to fill logistics roles.

The pure mercenaries, for their part, are rather defined as foreigners who actively take part in hostilities, without being part of the official army of a state, for financial reasons.

Between the two, there are a whole range of gray areas, making legislation even more complex.

States are accused of using private groups to carry out wars by proxy, by circumventing their obligations provided for by the Geneva Convention.

We use these people to, no doubt, do operations which are more or less legal by distancing themselves from them, letting in implies that these people do not necessarily intervene with the support of governments, who protect them.

Rémi Landry, associate professor at the University of Sherbrooke and Retired Lieutenant-Colonel

There are advantages for countries to be present in the field without being officially engaged in it.Financial, but also political advantages, while fewer troops are deployed in sometimes unpopular conflicts.Also a way of establishing your influence in strategic areas.

Changes

The phenomenon of mercenaries has always existed, insists Rémi Landry.

Les interventions en Irak et en Afghanistan ont cependant marqué un tournant, avec le recours plus important à des contractuels, par exemple pour soutenir les forces alliées de façon logistique, note M^meMacLeod.

The American private security company Blackwater (now called Academi), of which ex-agents have been sentenced to the United States-then pardoned-for murders committed in Iraq, has probably helped to make known to the general public-Traitors in conflict zones.Men could have been tried in the United States since they were under contract with the American Defense Department.

NGOs that have filed the complaint in Moscow hope to create a precedent for private groups who have no official mandate with a state.

When writing these lines, Russia had not yet responded to the request.

The Kremlin could still agree on the investigation and drag the deadlines, estimates Mr..Megret.But if the complaint is found before the European Court, it could be extended to other causes, he said.

"It is a weapon in the arsenal to try to regulate the activities of these groups," he explains.For the moment, we do not have a case law, we do not have a very clear case, this is what is missing.There are many cases at the European Court of Human Rights in state troops.But we have no really dealing with private groups, where control is less clear.»»

20,000

Number estimated by the UN of foreign soldiers and active mercenaries in Libya in December

37

Number of countries that have ratified the international convention against recruitment, use, financing and investigation of mercenaries

« On a vu des gens très bien entraînés»»

In 2016, Patricia Arias went to the Central African Republic, as president-reporter of the working group on the use of mercenaries.

"We have encountered victims, women abducted and reduced to slavery by the Lord's army [LRA]," said the woman, joined to Chile.One of them had a little baby and she had been kidnapped twice by the LRA. Et les atrocités qu’on a dû entendre des femmes étaient inconcevables…»»

The conflict in the Central African Republic continues. M^meArias, aujourd’hui membre du Sous-comité de prévention de la torture de l’ONU et professeure, est restée profondément touchée par les violations des droits de la personne constatées au pays.

She was there to investigate the presence of mercenaries, private security companies and foreign fighters.His interviews carried out it around fifteen members of the armed groups representing factions of the ex-Séléka."It was overwhelming," she said.We talked with them openly.We saw people very well trained and with a plan.»»

The men met were not foreign.But the working group has received information on the presence in the Central African Republic of mercenaries and foreign fighters from neighboring countries, notably from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Sudan, especially in the ranks of Séléka.They would have been more than 500 in 2016.

Again this year, the current members of the working group sounded the alarm for this country, suspecting the presence of Russian paramilitaries alongside the Central African Armed Forces (FACA).At the beginning of May, the country's authorities announced the opening of an investigation into alleged Central African soldiers and Russian nationals.

Difficult surveys

It remains difficult for organisms to investigate the phenomenon.

"The abuses are difficult to document for NGOs and activists, because these are abuses that are made in conflict ground and which are extremely complicated to document. Et c’est d’ailleurs une des raisons pour lesquelles ces États recourent à ces milices privées et ces groupes paramilitaires, c’est bien évidemment pour échapper à toute forme de redevabilité et de responsabilité»», dit Clémence Bectarte, lawyer for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

The UN working group can investigate the field, but by invitation.COVVI-19 prevented its members-all independent researchers-from visiting the conflict zones.

The Geneva Convention defines the mercenaries, but does not criminalize them.The international convention against recruitment, use, financing and investigation of mercenaries was born in 1989, to solve this problem.Only 37 states have ratified her.Canada is not part of it.

"States are very reluctant to sign it," says Sorcha McLeod, of the working group on the use of mercenaries.We would like more countries to be signatory to the agreement, but failing that, we would like them to refrain from recruiting, using, finance or train mercenaries.»»

The agreement remains a difficult tool to apply.

There is a problem to prove who is mercenary, and these are the elements of the international definition.

Patricia Arias, president-reporter of the working group on the use of mercenaries

« Même si la convention contre le mercenariat est ratifiée et si la norme existe dans le Code pénal, la notion des mercenaires n’est pas appliquée et on ne trouve pas de poursuite pour les cas de mercenariat, précise M^meArias.Neither in Chad nor in Ukraine, which are two states which have ratified and have a law.It’s easier to continue, accuse and condemn these people by applying the anti -terrorist law.So we do not use laws against mercenariat, we use laws against terrorism.»»

A previous version of a thumbnail suggested that Patricia Arias was still president-reporter on working group on the use of mercenaries.However, she held this function until 2018.

Life advice from a mercenary