A company that provides technical assistance and training to units of the US army is to administer an American visa programme devoted to promoting peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
The decision to award the administration contract for the Northern Ireland Visa for Peace and Reconciliation programme to Logicon has been criticised strongly by AFrI (Action from Ireland), the peace and justice group.
"It seems bitterly ironic that a company involved in preparing military forces for war should be chosen to administer a project whose stated aim is to `encourage grassroots support for long-term peace'," said the director of AFrI, Mr Joe Murray.
Under the programme 12,000 people under 35 years of age from "disadvantaged areas in Northern Ireland and the Border counties" will be given temporary non-immigrant visas to work in the US for up to three years.
Logicon, in co-operation with the US Department of State, will assist in the selection of candidates and will be involved in choosing the US companies they work for during their stay. The State's training body, FAS, will be involved in selecting candidates from the Border counties.
The Northern Ireland Visa for Peace and Reconciliation programme seeks to expose individuals "who have been subjected to war-torn, monocultural, sectarian environments" to the "diverse, co-operative, multi-cultural environment present in the United States", according to its mission statement.
Logicon is a subsidiary of Northrup Grumman, and has an annual turnover of $1 billion and 10,000 employees worldwide. It is the principal contractor for war game exercises in the US army and provides support for various US army weapon systems. A spokeswoman for the US embassy said officials from the company were in Ireland in the last week attempting to begin the selection process. She said Logicon was chosen because it has wide experience in "managing large and highly complex projects".
However, Mr Murray said the choice of a company with interests in the arms industry sent the wrong signals.