Coming up on
Special Assignment:
Episode Title: Brothers In Arms
Broadcast date: Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Tonight's Special Assignment looks at the lives of South African civilian contractors injured on duty in Iraq - and how an apparently unsympathetic medical insurance industry has turned its back on them.
Behind the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, is a vast, parallel corps of civilian contractors.
In 2003, the US-led invasion of Iraq targeted key infrastructures in their bid to oust Saddam Hussein. This, coupled with years of neglect, left the country in ruins.
In the aftermath, international efforts turned to the reconstruction and stabilization the country. Private contractors were tasked with construction of hospitals, roads, water supply, security and systems maintenance.
Currently the number of private contractors in Iraq almost equals the number of military and, as the troops withdraw, may soon exceed them. Playing an indispensable role in support of the US war effort, more than 1,400 have died and 31 000 have suffered devastating injuries.
South Africans make up the second largest contingent of civilian contractors. 27 have been killed and many more have suffered severe physical and psychological wounds.
Yet on their return home, they’ve had to face the battle of their lives, simply to obtain basic medical care, artificial limbs, and other treatment. Under an American law called the Defence Base Act, companies working under U.S. contracts in Iraq or Afghanistan must purchase insurance that pays for medical care and disability benefits for workers injured on the job, as well as death benefits for those killed.
However, the insurance carriers routinely deny or delay payments to injured contractors, while recording hundreds of millions of dollars profit in the process. AIG is the biggest culprit. They have received 1.5 billion dollars in premiums from private contractors, but only paid out 900 million dollars in compensation and expenses.
They have turned misery of men, wounded or killed in action, into a giant profiteering venture. This documentary is the story of a disposable army.
It was produced by Sasha Wales-Smith.
Special Assignment is on SABC3 on Tuesdays at 20h31.