Baghdad’s green zone rightly has the reputation as the most secure area in a city best known for its violence and lawlessness.

But the relative security comes at a cost. Ever since the green zone was created in the aftermath of the US-led invasion five years ago, to protect the American and British embassies and their officials, the area has existed in a legal limbo.

America supposedly handed sovereignty back to the Iraqis in June 2004 with the disbandment of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran Iraq for the first year after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But the handover was deceptive. The 130,000 US troops and other coalition forces are exempt from Iraqi law and answer only to their own governments.

Similarly, the hundreds of Western officials in Iraq invariably enjoy diplomatic status and immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. And, most controversially, the contractors working for the US and British governments also enjoy immunity under a provision passed in the final days of the CPA’s rule.

The issue has caused huge resentment in Iraq and came to a head last summer when private security guards working for the American company Blackwater, and contracted to the US State Department, opened fire on a Baghdad street killing 17 Iraqi civilians. Nearly a year later none of the men has been prosecuted.

The same is true of the Iraqi staff at the British Embassy, who claim that they suffered abuse at the hands of contractors hired by KBR, the American company employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for catering and clearing services.

The Iraqis could have gone to the Iraq police, but they would have been powerless to act. Not only did the alleged incidents take place on British Embassy premises, hence on British sovereign territory, but those accused of the abuses are immune from prosecution.

The US has taken steps to end the legal ambiguity by extending the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act to cover all contractors working for the US Government in war zones. So far the British Government has been slower to act.

In this case it insisted that the alleged incident was an internal matter for KBR to resolve. However, that fails to address a serious issue. Britain is engaged in two military operations – in Iraq and Afghanistan – where private contractors are widely used.

For their sake, and Britain’s reputation abroad, it is high time that the legal loophole was closed.

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