Post Conflict People

Elizabeth Laird Robyn Warburton Chiara Brunelli Chibuye Ngosa frazer clark

Goals and Objectives

Post Conflict People is an independent association founded by Andy Bearpark, Penny Beels and Iain King. It works:

- to revive societies suffering from recent or on-going conflicts and to improve the lives of the people affected by conflict;

- to improve the practical performance of governments, international agencies, firms and individuals that work in post-conflict situations;

- to offer advice and produce authoritative reports that are respected and heeded.

The fundamental problem is that “State Building” takes time – but the international community, and indeed the affected population, want quick results. The two are simply incompatible. The way in which the international community usually addresses this is to place more emphasis on what it is doing and less on building functioning institutions. By the time it is clear that the institutions are not functioning donor interest has frequently moved on. There are three particular problems with which Post Conflict People try to deal: security, development instruments and reality checks.

The British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC) was launched in February 2006 by leading members of the private security industry under the chairmanship of Andrew Bearpark. According to its charter its mission is:

to promote, enhance and regulate the interests and activities of UK-based firms and companies that provide armed security services in countries outside the UK and to represent the interests and activities of Members in matters of proposed or actual legislation.

The charter further states that:

The Association determines that it can only achieve its objectives through effective self-regulation and transparent engagement with UK Government departments and relevant International Organisations. The Association believes that it is only through effective self-regulation that the Members will enhance their position and be able to achieve differentiation from non Members in the same industry sector. However, Bob Shepherd an ex-SAS soldier and security advisor has suggested that allowing BAPSC to self regulate is "tantamount to allowing Afghan drug traffickers to police the boarder with Pakistan". However

London - Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Ex-British defence and home secretary John Reid - now group consultant to G4S, including ArmorGroup, which is hired by the UK government in Afghanistan - addresses the annual conference of the British Association of Private Security Companies

Activities

At the second BAPSC conference at the Royal Geographical Society in December 2007 one unnamed delegate highlighted the reasons behind the governments employment of private military companies: "Private security companies are not subject to political considerations in the same way conventional armies are. Plus you don't necessarily have to flag up money you spend on hiring mercenaries. It doesn't necessarily appear in the official defence budget," he said. "Most importantly, if a private security contractor is killed on active duty, you don't get any body bag pictures on the front pages. That means no bad publicity for the government". A number of speakers at the conference, including Sir Malcolm Rifkin following complaints by NGOs, called for governmental regulation of private security companies. By January 2009 Erineys suspended its BAPSC membership siteing the need for Government clarity on the regulatory framework for British Private Security Companies. [3] War on Want (WAW) recently produced a critical report of the killings and human rights abuses by private security companies in Iraq. A trophy video on WAWs web site shows mercenaries from British company Aegis Defence Services(ADS) randomly shooting automatic weapons at civilian cars in Baghdad. ADS is also known as Aegis Specialist Risk Management (ASRM) was founded by former Scots Guard Tim Spencer who was named in the Sandline Affair for exporting 30 tons of arms to Sierra Leone which was in violation of the UN weapons embargo. He was also arrested in 1997 for his involvement in an abortive coup in Papua New Guinea. Spicer's former Sandline business partner ex-SAS officer Simon Mann was also arrested in 2004 for his attempt at facilitating a coup in Equatorial Guinea.According to Andy Bearpark in 2007 the Iraq boom for the private security industries was in its final stages: "It will not be the same again,...The $8bn (£9bn) the US paid out for Iraqi construction will not be repeated," he said. However, by September huge profits were on the horizon again as the US Pentagon renewed a two year contract with Aegis which was worth a staggering $475m.

Conferences

Democracy & Security International Conference

In 2005 King attended the Neocon International event in Prague,the Democracy and Security International also known as the “Democracy and Security: Core Values and Sound Policies” conference was held in Prague on the 5-6th of June, overlapping the 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm.

British Association of Private Security Companies Conference 2007

Personnel

The independent NGO Post conflict People was founded by Andy Bearpark, Penny Beels and Iain King.

Andy Bearpark is also the Director General of the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC) along with Penny Beels who is the Deputy Director General to this company. In 2009 BAPSC had incorporated 6 full members including; Aegis Defence Services, Armour Group, International PLC, Control risks Group, Erineys UK Ltd, Janusian Security Risk Management and the Olive Group. In addition to these, it had 15 provisional members and 13 associate members.

Iain King (born 1971) is founder of Post Conflict People and a 'civilian stabilisation advisor'. He was formerly Director of Programmes at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. King worked for UNMIK from April 2000 to December 2003. He spent 2003 as head of planning for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.[3] Since 2004 he has been the director of programs at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. [4][5] In 2005 King attended the Neocon International event in Prague the Democracy and Security International Conference

Connections

With Government

Jamie Shea (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict' 24-25 June 2009)

Alister Campbell (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

MOD (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

EU (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

United Nations (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

NATO (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

Edward Mortimer (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

AMISOM (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

UNAMA (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

UNRWA (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

General Sir Michael Jackson (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

With Industry

Albany Associates Ltd (Conference:Strategic Communications in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict’ 24-25 June 2009)

Portland PR (Conference:Strategic Communications in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict’ 24-25 June 2009)

Bell Pottinger (Conference: 'Strategic Communication in Countries Emerging from Violent Conflict'24-25 June 2009)

Chime Communications (Bell Pottinger)