Wagner mutiny highlights dangers of using militias

By Iftikhar Gilani

The mutiny of the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, against the Russian government has once again highlighted the dangers of using private militias and contracted security groups in conflicts to achieve security objectives.

The Wagner Group and Black Water are increasingly being used by Russia and the United States, respectively, in conflicts around the world for dirty jobs.

From Colombia and Nicaragua in Latin America to the Balkans and Ukraine in Europe, Iraq and Syria in the Middle East, and Afghanistan, India, and the Philippines in Asia, these private militias have been used in many intra- and interstate conflicts. According to Dale Pankhurst, a researcher at Queen’s College in Belfast, Northern Ireland, no fewer than 336 pro-government militias were active worldwide between 1981 and 2007.

These private militias, used as the first line of defense, not only reduce pressure on the security forces, but also save them from being tried for human rights abuses. All the blame is shifted to the private security groups, who are not bound by any law or rules.

Media had reported that the Wagner group recruits prisoners from various Russian prisons. At least 20,000 prisoners were recruited by Wagner to participate in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but in December Reuters reported that there may have been as many as 40,000. In February, it was reported Wagner had offered convicts a pardon if they survived six months of service in Ukraine. However, according to the British Ministry of Defense, Wagner had lost access to the prisons because of disputes with the Russian Defense Ministry leadership that occurred in March.

Ukraine, with the help of Western allies, had also created private militias such as the Azov Battalion to repel Russian forces. The militia was formed in 2014 to fight pro-Russian separatist rebels operating in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Pankhurst explained that in addition to the Azov Battalion, there are a number of other militias, the most prominent of which is the Dnipro Battalion, funded by Ukrainian banking magnate Ihor Kolomoisky.

Russian militias also played a role in the conflict in Sudan. U.S. officials revealed that the Wagner Group offered powerful weapons such as surface-to-air missiles to the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohammed Hamdan or Hemedti, in April before the takeover of the Abdel Fattah al-Burhan-led Sudanese army. The Wagner Group has ammunition depots in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali.

Despite denials, Wagner’s involvement in Sudan was documented by many organizations. When protests erupted against the regime of Omar al-Bashir, Wagner’s group was spotted patrolling anti-government rallies in Khartoum in early 2019. In the run-up to the clashes between Burhan and Hemedti that erupted on April 15, Russian Ilyushin-76 aircraft were seen shuttling between Libya, Syria, and Sudan. Wagner has a presence in Khadim and Jufra in Libya and Latakia in Syria, as well as in Libya, Mozambique, the Central African Republic, and Mali. A New York Times investigation found that Wagner killed 500 civilians in the town of Moura in Mali and buried them in mass graves.

-Blackwater of the U.S.

The U.S. rivals the use of the private security firm Blackwater in conflicts. In 2007, the Blackwater Company massacred 14 civilians, including two children, and injured at least 17 others in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. In 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned the culprits.

A confidential U.N. report submitted to the Security Council UN revealed that Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, had violated the U.N. arms embargo on Libya. The report also revealed that this security firm had twice attempted to overthrow the UN backed Government of National Concord in 2019. It had sent mercenaries and weapons to support Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar against the government in Tripoli.

Blackwater reportedly operated out of the covert U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi since 2006, when the two countries reached an agreement to hunt down Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda militants.

An investigation by the U.S. biweekly The Nation found that Blackwater was at the center of a U.S. military operation conducted in parallel with the CIA. The newspaper explained that the use of private companies like Blackwater in sensitive operations such as drone strikes or other covert operations has the advantage of deniability, thus circumventing accountability.

Blackwater, founded by Prince in 1997, was contracted by the U.S. State Department to provide security during the Iraq War.

-India’s experiments with militias

India had experimented with using private militias to suppress Sikh militancy in the state of Punjab in the late 1980s, but the idea was used with impunity in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2015, then Defense Minister Manohar Parikar had said that “terrorists can be neutralized only by terrorists.”

The biggest news of 1994 in Kashmir was the emergence of a pro-government militant group called Ikhwanul Muslimeen, led by a folk singer turned renegade militant Mohammad Yusuf Parray, better known as Kuka Parray.

The Indian army or paramilitary forces used to encircle a village and then allow Ikhwan gunmen to loot, kill, and target homes-mostly unarmed members of Jamaat e Islami, a socio-religious organization, or the family members or even distant relatives of those who had joined the militant ranks.

According to witnesses, they knew no mercy. Parray’s associate Rashid Billa had wiped out two entire families in the north Kashmiri village of Sadrekoot in 1996. Their crimes were that they had voted for an opposing candidate in the state assembly elections. Against another commander of this grouping, Setha Gujru alias Mohammad Ameen Wani, police have registered 90 cases of murder. In an interview with the local weekly Chattan in 2001, he had boasted of killing 300 people. This force was strategically created to break the resistance of Kashmiris and fragment the society.

While the era of Ikhwans is over, India has created another force in the form of village defense committees (VDCs) in the hill districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Since most of these districts, which are part of the Jammu division, have a mixed population, only Hindu villagers have been provided with weapons. There are allegations that the weaponized Hindu population creates a sense of insecurity among Muslims and many of the VDCs extort money from them at gunpoint.

The experiment was repeated in central India to combat the Maoist insurgency by creating a similar pro-government organization, Salwa Judum. The militia, made up of local tribesmen, was supported and trained by the Chhattisgarh state government. The organization herded villagers and tribals into makeshift camps where human rights abuses were rampant. A lawsuit against this group alleged that it burned more than 600 villages and forced 300,000 people to flee their homes. In 2011, the Supreme Court banned the force on the grounds that security and fight against militancy could not be outsourced to a private group.

History has shown that these civilian paramilitary factions soon morph into semi-criminal organizations. They have also been responsible for the worst human rights abuses as they are not accountable to any system. If governments choose to use militias to combat insurgent threat or a popular resistance, they should equally be mindful that they are creating a Frankenstein’s monster.