Kiwis keen to work in Iraq

By JARROD BOOKER
Red Key Security New Zealanders are still clamouring for lucrative security work in Iraq despite the murder of a fellow Kiwi and the beheading of a United States worker, a Hamilton security firm says.

Red Key Security, which is recruiting New Zealanders for protection work in Iraq, said escalating violence had not deterred applicants.

Managing director Terry Phelan told The Press yesterday about 50 people had applied the day news of the beheading was made public.

"It hasn't stopped anybody at all," Phelan said. "Of those (who applied that day), about 12 are serving police officers."

To date about 1500 people– 260 from Christchurch – had contacted the company about work in Iraq.

Meanwhile, a Christchurch woman working in Iraq is trying to "stay positive", with no immediate plans to flee the troubled nation.

Security around 25-year-old Rochelle Knight, who works for American firm KBR supplying and feeding the military, is "stepping up every day".

Knight is based in a tent camp about 68km north of Baghdad, and has security to protect her and her colleagues.

After recent events, she now wears protective armour at all times, and does not leave the camp without good reason. When she does leave the camp, she travels with an armed escort.

Speaking to The Press after former New Plymouth engineer John Robert Tyrrell, 53, was shot dead and American Nick Berg was publicly executed, Knight admitted she had considered leaving Iraq. She had quickly shrugged off such thoughts.

"I have a lot of friends over here and we help each other out," she said. "Those (killings) are really, really sad ... but it is part of what life is over here. We all try to stay positive, but this sort of thing does make you step back and say `is this the place I'm living in?' I don't know if I would be here if the security team weren't here."

Knight did her best to ease the fears of her parents, Dennis and Lynda, back in Christchurch after reports of the violence.

"Mum and Dad get quite panicky," she said.

"But I talk to my sister as well, and she reassures them that I am all right."


"Iraq is not going to go away. It's going to be there for at least 10 years." Terry Phelan

Next month, she will get a break from Iraq and return home to see her family in Christchurch.

"The countdown is so on," she said. "I can't wait. It is going to be hard to come back (to Iraq). Not just being in Iraq, but being away from home again."

Phelan said Red Key was closer to securing a contract with a firm in Iraq, which he declined to name.

He said many applicants were former police or military personnel.

Others had experience in security work and had trained as bodyguards in New Zealand and overseas.

"I would like to have people there now because of the pressure I'm getting from people that have applied," Phelan said.

"But at the moment it could be three to six months away."

While there was no doubt money had a big part to play in attracting applicants most rated the challenge as more important, Phelan said.

"Iraq is not going to go away. It's going to be there for at least 10 years."

It was unbelievable that only one New Zealander had died to date, he said, predicting that more than 1000 Kiwis were already in Iraq.

Last month police Commis-sioner Rob Robinson warned police officers against moonlighting in Iraq.

Officers were told that if they wanted to work in Iraq they would have to resign their positions in the force.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has repeatedly warned against travel to Iraq and in its latest advisory urges any New Zealanders in Iraq to leave because of "the deteriorating security situation and hostage taking".

From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2909232a11,00.html