Erinys International Ltd.

Erinys International Ltd is a British private security company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The Group operational HQ is in Dubai, UAE and other offices are in London (Erinys UK Ltd) and Johannesburg (Erinys South Africa Ltd).

Erinys International has subsidiaries in the UK, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo and associated companies in Iraq and Nigeria. On its website the firm states that its "principal geographical operational footprints are in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa."

On its website the firm states that it offers "a wide range of security services which span the planning, design and implementation of comprehensive, turnkey, security solutions in remote and difficult environments. Erinys also specialises in risk management and mitigation, threat assessments and the design and implementation security strategies at the corporate level."

Erinys is a member of the International Peace Operations Association, the British Association of Private Security Companies and the Private Security Company Association of Iraq

Services

 * Security Services and Consultancy : The security division is directed by former senior members of the UK armed forces with extensive experience in providing security to the private sector with clients such as the UN, US and UK governments, the international petrochemical industry and commerce.
 * Emergency Action Planning & Crisis Management : Assessments of potentially damaging scenarios.
 * Specialist Manpower : Available for all levels of security, training and project management.
 * Site Security : Consultancy, audits, provisions, training, personnel, and equipment
 * Guard Force Management
 * Transportation and Logistics Security : Extensive experience in airline, rail, sea and overland travel including high value goods and cash in transit.
 * Human Resources : Specialist, managed manpower for support operations in remote sites

Erinys Iraq
Erinys Iraq Ltd was registered in BVI in August 2003 (and subsequently in Iraq) and was granted a contract by the Coalition Provisional Authority to recruit and train an Oil Protection Force (OPF) for the Iraq Ministry of Oil. Initially the requirement was for 6,500 personnel to guard designated pipelines and installations, but this grew over the period of the contract to reach 16,000 Iraqi staff guarding 282 locations and included an aerial surveillance capability. The OPF contract ended in December 2004 with the transfer of the force and its assets to the Ministry of Oil. An account of the Erinys OPF project is available at www.erinysinternational.com.

Other significant contracts in Iraq included the provision of reconstruction security and support services to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Gulf Region Division (GRD). The principal role of Erinys support to the GRD mission across Iraq was to provide security escort services for civilian personnel whose role was to monitor reconstruction projects in Iraq. Erinys also furnished the GRD with a nationwide radio communications network and specialist security survey and assessment services.

Meanwhile the contracts have brought an influx of highly paid international staff, from a wide range of countries and backgrounds. Some are from South Africa and have service origins in a range of army and police units. Two employees of SASI, a US subcontractor to Erinys Iraq (since terminated by Erinys for its poor employment vetting procedures among other issues), that had been in a serious explosion turned up to have long records in South Africa. Francois Strydom, who was killed, was a member of Koevoet, a known brutal counter-insurgency arm of the South African military that fought in Namibia during its fight for independence. Deon Gouws, who was injured, had been an officer in the Vlakplaas, a South African secret-police unit. He received amnesty application after admitting to forty to sixty bombings of political activists' homes in 1986.

SourceWatch Resources

 * British Association of Private Security Companies
 * International Peace Operations Association
 * Private Military Corporations

External resources

 * Spinprofiles Erinys International

Contact
Erinys Middle East Building 5EA, Suite 128 Dubai Airport Free Zone Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 (0)4 609 1141 Fax: +971 (0)4 609 1144 Website: http://www.erinys.net/

Erinys UK Suite 17, Basepoint Business Centre Caxton Close, Andover Hampshire, SP10 3FG England Tel: +44 (0)1264 326 593 Fax: +44 (0)1264 326 594

Erinys Africa Erinys House Mulberry Hill Office Park, Broadacres Drive, Dainfern, South Africa Tel: +27 11 469 3926 Fax: +27 11 469 3927