A/HRC/7/7 page 22 force and shoot indiscriminately resulting in civilian casualties.75 The Working Group has also received information of cases where PMSC employees have used forbidden arms or used experimental ammunition prohibited by international law.76 Often, they circulate without identification and drive in unidentified sport utility vehicles (SUVs) with tinted glasses and no plates, behaving similarly to the infamous death squads. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the staff of PMSCs “is extremely difficult to identify”77. Local populations do not have the means to file a complaint with the authorities or the contracting State. In Iraq, for instance, the United States Army does not accept to receive complaints for abuses which may have been committed by employees of PMSCs. In a number of cases, these private security companies sacrifice the safety of their employees to cut costs and obtain more profits;78 − Responsibilities of the States which outsource military functions. Indirect implication of other States. States may contract these companies in attempts to avoid direct legal responsibilities. Complaints which have been brought to the attention of Governments appear to be redirected to the private company itself. It also leads to States having its citizens involved in armed conflicts for which the Government has never been consulted, but the behaviour of the companies or the nationals employed by them may nonetheless damage the international image of the States concerned. As pointed out by the Human Rights Committee, States have the responsibility to take appropriate measures or exercise due diligence to prevent, punish, investigate and redress the harm 75 On 16 September 2007, according to UNAMI in the neighbourhood of Mansour in Baghdad, security contractors protecting a US State Department convoy which was attacked opened fire on civilians killing at least 11 persons, with security company helicopters firing into the streets resulting in civilian casualties and injuries. 76 The information on the use of forbidden ammunitions was provided to the Working Group by a former military who had been employed as “security guard” in Iraq by a PMSC. There are reports of use of armour piercing-limited penetration (APLPs) ammunitions, which are blended metal bullets which go through steel and anti-bulletproof vests and that instead of passing through a human body they shatter creating untreatable wounds. Ibid, Scahill, p. 78. In March 2007, the United States military barred the Crescent Security Company from bases in Iraq after it was found with weapons prohibited for private security companies. See: Steve Fainaru, “Cutting costs, Bending Rules, And a Trail to Broken Lives”, The Washington Post, 29 July 2007. 77 78 Emamanuela-Chiara Gillard, supra (p. 535). Such as the Fallujah incident of 2004 involving the deaths of four private guards working for Blackwater or the ambushing and kidnapping of five Crescent Security Group private guards, near Safwan on 16 November 2006. Steve Fainaru, “Cutting Costs, Bending Rules, And a Trail to Broken Lives”, The Washington Post, 29 July 2007.