UK firm ordered to quit Afghanistan

Published on Tuesday 31 August 2010 17:01

A BRITISH security company which guards a major US headquarters and Nato bases across Afghanistan has been ordered to cease trading, surrender its weapons and leave the country immediately amid allegation of weapons smuggling.

• Nick Clegg speaks to UK troops on a surprise visit to Afghanistan as talks continued over Blue Hackle's future Picture: AFP/Getty

Officials said president Hamid Karzai revoked Blue Hackle's operating licence on Sunday, with immediate effect. There were conflicting reports yesterday over whether that decision would be reversed amid tense meetings between Mr Karzai, General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces, and other senior western officials.

Blue Hackle guards the headquarters of Nato's training mission - a major US base adjacent to the presidential palace in Kabul - and employs more than 1,000 people across the country. It also protects a large diesel power plant in Kabul, paid for by the United States Agency for International Development, and a Canadian command centre in Kandahar.

The surprise decision has strained relations between Mr Karzai and Nato.

Thousands of aid contractors - part of Barack Obama's civilian surge - have been warned they could be evacuated if other security companies suffer a similar fate. Deloitte, which operates various US development contracts in Afghanistan, has made enquiries about emergency plane charters to airlift staff out of the country, if they are unable to guard the compounds where they live.

President Karzai issued a decree two weeks ago demanding all private security companies be dissolved within four months, a deadline Washington branded "very challenging" at the time.

Mr Karzai accused them of fuelling corruption and running parallel power structures outside his government's control - he wants Afghan police to take over.

Afghan police were guarding Kabul's five-star Serena Hotel when it was overrun by insurgents in 2007. They were also guarding a UN guesthouse which was overwhelmed by suicide bombers last year.

Private security guards from Global defended the Ministry of Finance from an attack in 2009, they also run the airport. Direct flights from Kabul to Europe would likely be suspended if security were handed back to Afghanistan's notoriously corrupt police.

Gen Petraeus has said he supports Mr Karzai's timeline, but American officials have been lobbying hard to get certain companies - including the US giant DynCorps - exemptions, because they are deemed "mission critical". DynCorps has a contract to train most of Afghanistan's police force, a central pillar of the international exit strategy.

"This is an issue that requires close co-ordination between (the International Security Assistance Force] and the Afghan government," a US spokesman said.He added that senior officers had been trying to make Afghan officials appreciate "this undertaking requires a deliberate process".

"Understanding the scale and the scope of the issues that are clearly present will take time," he said.

Blue Hackle's guards had last night withdrawn inside the perimeter walls of the compounds they were guarding.

"We are in discussions with the Ministry of Interior to resolve this," Blue Hackle's CEO and founder, Michael Raper said. "It is moving positively."

General Abdul Manan, the head of counter terrorism at Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior, said officials had agreed an "implementation plan" last night to dissolve the remaining companies, which employ 40,000-50,000 people.

"Blue Hackle is a criminal company," he said. "They were trying to smuggle weapons and other military equipment out of Kabul." A spokesman for the intelligence agency said agents seized "15 to 16" military items including weapons and ammunition. Security sources close to the company claimed the items were en route to the airport, destined for an American base.