For those Americans you wishing to support the Barack Obama candicacy for the United States presidency, this is your chance – and to meet Academy Award actor George Clooney. As part of the Democrats Abroad initiative, American international lawyer Charles Adams is hosting an evening with George Clooney with both a fund-raising reception followed by a more private dinner in Geneva on Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

During the 1970s, 80s and into the 90s, numerous conflicts, particularly in Africa, were tainted by mercenaries from Britain, United States, Belgium, Yugoslavia and other largely Western countries but also from South Africa and former Rhodesia. Many fought alongside one Third World regime or another, or with opposition guerrilla factions. These included colourful but highly dubious figures such as France’s Bob Denard and Britain’s Mad Michael Hoare, or companies such as Executive Outcomes. For many governments, the use of mercenaries was regarded with distaste, primarily because they tended to be white (or Coloureds with many of the South Africans) and were involved in propping up unpopular dictatorships or questionable private interests. At the same time, much to the embarrassment of humanitarian groups, some of these soldiers of fortune filled an unintentional void by establishing security zones, such as the diamond areas in Sierra Leone, which came to represent safe havens for hapless civilians in search of refuge. This prompted some observers to propose the deployment of contracted mercenaries, particularly in areas where no one, whether UN peacekeeping forces or other representatives of the international community, could be bothered to provide protection.

More recently, attitudes toward mercenaries have changed. Western governments, such as the United States and Britain, are now themselves engaged in hiring mercenaries through companies such as Blackwater and Dyncorps to protect their diplomatic missions, military enclaves, aid projects or simply to fill in the gaps with their regular armed forces as part of counter-insurgency or counter-narcotics operations. Many are deployed in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands are local nationals, but thousands more are former US, British, South African and others serving as guns for hire. The business is now estimated to be worth more than 100 billion dollars a year and in Iraq now represents the second largest foreign military force. The problem is that these well-armed militia – now euphemistically referred to as “private military contractors” –largely operate without any form of effective accountability. With above- law attitudes that alienate local populations, they tend to do more harm to undermine the reputation of international humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts than anything else. At the same time, they are not counted as casualties if killed or injured. Nor are their families provided with compensation.

Pam Taylor of the Geneva-based Human Rights Tribune (www.humanrights-geneva.info ) highlights a report recently presented to the Human Rights Council on the problems of human rights violations by private security companies: