Regulating PMC (catch all)

[Polarbear]

So who is going guard the Pope now?

The Swiss guard in Rome is affected by this law since the social benefits are paid by the Confederation. Nevertheless, they receive their pay from the Vatican.

Some background: Aegis Defence Services, the UK PMC, has its holding company based in Switzerland. Since they have grown to be a large company with operations in a number of countries - I would imagine this has raised issues with the matter of Swiss neutrality.

This is correct indeed! The move of Aegis provoked a lot of anti-"mercenary" reactions. Thoug a survey made in 2010 showd that at least about twenty contractor companies resided in Switzerland. Many of them working with NGOs and humanitarian organizations like the UN and the Red Cross.

Therein lies also one of the contradictions IMO. The law forbids firms to recruit personnel and to promote activities that lead to direct involvement in hostilities in conflict zones. But how will they control that?

Regards PB

[davidbfpo]

An overview of regulating the PMC role in maritime security, which includes guarding against piracy and the precis says:

States recently embraced a new policy regarding the fight against maritime piracy, and many began authorizing their cargo ships to carry private armed guards to help protect them when travelling through pirate-infested waters. Whilst this approach has yielded some success in protecting ships, it has also produced some major problems.

Link:https://sustainablesecurity.org/2016...-armed-guards/

[AdamG]

For lack of a better thread,

(NEW YORK) — A former U.S. Army sniper and two other ex-American soldiers agreed to become contract killers for an international crime boss who wanted to settle a score with a real estate agent in the Philippines he thought had cheated him on a land deal, a prosecutor said Tuesday in opening statements at the trial of the three men.

Joseph Hunter, a onetime sergeant with a Special Forces background, Adam Samia and Carl David Stillwell have denied they planned the 2012 execution-style hit — a case that’s provided an inside glimpse into the secret fraternity of private mercenaries willing to kill in cold blood for cash.

Prosecutors said the 52-year-old Hunter was working as a security chief for weapons and drug trafficker Paul Le Roux when he recruited Samia and Stillwell to travel from their homes in Roxboro, North Carolina, to the Philippines for what was called “ninja work.” Hunter provided firearms and silencers and told them Le Roux would pay them $35,000 a piece to get the job done, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Egan said in federal court in Manhattan.

http://time.com/5227561/former-soldi...tional-hitmen/

[davidbfpo]

More on this curious NYC court case via the NYT:

The chilling testimony was part of Mr. Le Roux’s cooperation with the government. In late 2012, he was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration after being lured to Liberia. Ever since, Mr. Le Roux, 45, has been assisting the authorities in rounding up the members of his sprawling organization in an effort to reduce a possible life sentence.

Link:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/n...320180409&te=1

[AdamG]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia...ve-been-set-up

On the ground, for the benefit of their Russian employers the mercenaries can then “raid, seize, and exploit” natural resources, as Avramov and Trad put it.