India to probe how former soldiers were sent to Iraq

Chennai, May 3 (IANS) :

India Monday said it had ordered a probe to ascertain how some 1,500 former soldiers had been employed for security duties in Iraq despite a ban on Indians working in that country.

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said here that his office had asked the labour ministry to inquire into the matter.

"I have already told the external affairs ministry to ask the labour ministry to launch an inquiry (into the employment of former Indian soldiers for security duties in Iraq)", Sinha told a press conference here on his way back from Neyveli, which he visited Sunday.

The external affairs ministry had asked the labour ministry to "take appropriate action" against agencies which had sent the ex-servicemen for employment in Iraq.

Some of the former soldiers, he explained, might not even hold valid travel documents and were reportedly permitted only to go to Jordan and Kuwait for work.


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India orders probe into Iraq mercenaries


Monday 03 May 2004, 18:25 Makka Time, 15:25 GMT


India has refused to send troops to Iraq under US occupation



India has refused to send troops to Iraq under US occupation


The Indian government is parrying allegations that it is allowing ex-soldiers to work as mercenaries in Iraq following pressure from the United States.



The Communist Party has accused the BJP-led government of sending "mercenaries" in the guise of job-seekers to help occupation forces in the country.



Responding to the charge, the federal government in New Delhi on Monday said it had ordered a probe into reports that private security agencies had illegally hired 1,500 ex-combat troops as private guards to protect installations in Iraq.



Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said his ministry had asked the labour ministry to launch an inquiry "and take appropriate action against agencies which had fraudulently taken these men without valid documents."



"These men were originally permitted to go to Jordan and Kuwait," Sinha told a news conference in southern city of Chennai.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2369D4E0-B683-42AA-BF06-06A01B795A4F.htm

Two Indians working at US bases killed in Iraq
Tuesday May 4 2004 00:28 IST
NEW DELHI: Two Indians who went to Iraq to work as service personnel at US bases have been killed and a third has been injured, of bullet wounds sustained driving a US convoy.

The two bodies were handed over to the Indian Embassy in Kuwait. While the Government hasn't officially confirmed the identities of those killed, the injured man is from Kerala and is currently in a Baghdad hospital.

Sources said all three went to Iraq recently. The two killed were hired from India by a recruitment agency in Kuwait.

The deaths come amid increasing concern in New Delhi over reports that at least 1,500 ex-servicemen were hired out to Iraq by private security agencies in the country. This has prompted the Centre to seriously considering bringing in a law to regulate this mushrooming sector.

In fact, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on Monday said in Chennai that the Centre would probe how the ex-servicemen were sent to Iraq despite an April 15 ban on sending people to that country.

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They snapped up all the other outsourced jobs like hotcakes.