Matek Opoko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
As if to say that The US does not have enough citizens , who can be recruited and deployed to perform the Jobs, which Ugandans will be doing in Iraq? The bottom line is that I do not think Iraq Citizens will readly welcome the Ugandans in Bagdad. But then again fools aways learn the hard way!
Matek
The article below appeared in the Monitor News Paper Kampala
10,000 Ugandans to get Iraq, US jobs By Gaaki Kigambo & Kabona Esiara
KAMPALA - At least 200 Ugandan youths on Saturday signed up for security work in Iraq and at American installations worldwide.
The Ugandans who go to Iraq will be deployed to guard public and private installations in the war-ravaged country where the United States forces continue to battle local insurgents.
A local law firm, Hall & Partners, is working in collaboration with a local security firm, Aktar Security Services, on the recruitment exercise, which is targeting 10,000 people in three years.
Mr Bob Kasango, a lawyer with Hall & Partners, said the firm was hired by the World Wide Special Operations (WWSO), who work for and closely with the US government and other international organisations like the World Bank, Coca Cola, and Microsoft Corporation to provide security.
Kasango said not all the recruits will be employed in in Iraq.“They will work in any part of the world where America has installations. Iraq is just one of them,” he said.
The recruitment exercise has got clearance from the US State Department, State House in Kampala, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, sources said.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, said yesterday, “I’m aware that there is a programme of equipping Ugandans with capacity to do guard duties locally in Uganda and if necessary abroad, but it is strictly a private initiative.”
He said the exercise was “strictly voluntary”.
But Samia Bugwe MP Aggrey Awori condemned the exercise.“It is tragic for the Uganda government to allow its citizens to be recruited as mercenaries. It is not true that they are only going to provide guard services. How do you provide only guard services in a country like Iraq? These people will definitely shoot back when they are shot at,” Awori said.
But Kasango denied the Ugandans would work as combat personnel.
“No single Ugandans is going to manage roadblocks. They are going to be involved in non-combatant security. They may be at banks and at airports checking bags. Some are going to be trained in computing as they will be entering data.Others will be trained as motor vehicle mechanics and others will do secretarial work,” he said.
Sources said Uganda had been targeted because of its close working relations with the US government and because it was one of the African countries that supported the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.Kasango said other countries had also been targeted to provide people needed for various jobs at American installations across the world.
In Uganda the local firms conducting the exercise are targeting able-bodied people with high education qualifications. Military experience is an added advantage, sources said.The State Department has reportedly cleared private firms in different countries of the world to source employees for mostly security work at US installations because Americans are shunning the lucrative, but risky jobs.
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