What states canât do they will do
By Political Editor Munyaradzi Huni
SOME call them "soldiers of fortune", others call them "dogs
of war" while those who have come face to face with their brutality call them
"sadistic slaughterers for hire". All they do is "kill for gain". Never mind the
flowery names they call themselves to legitimise their evil deeds.
Welcome to the world of the "messiahs of terror" â the mercenaries. Itâs
a world where money talks and where death is nothing but just one of the many
occupational hazards.
Last Sunday Zimbabwe arrested 67 suspected
mercenaries believed to have been on their way to Equatorial Guinea to overthrow
that countryâs president, Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Authorities in the oil-rich
West African country reported that they had arrested another group of 15
suspected mercenaries believed to be involved in the same plot to oust Mr
Obiang.
One Nick du Toit, believed to be a South African, the leader of
the suspected mercenaries arrested in Equatorial Guinea, has since appeared on
that countryâs national television confessing of the plans to overthrow Mr
Obiang.
"It wasnât a question of taking the life of the head of state
but of spiriting him away, taking him to Spain and forcing him into exile and
then of immediately installing the government-in-exile of Severo Moto Nsa," said
Nick du Toit.
The arrest of the 67 suspected mercenaries in Zimbabwe,
the arrest of the other 15 in Equatorial Guinea and the confession by Nick du
Toit has suddenly thrown the word mercenaries onto the international scene.
Many people are talking about these "dogs of war", but what are
mercenaries, what is their history, how did they come about, how do they
operate, who funds them and on whose behalf do they carry out their activities?
And most importantly, should Africa worry about mercenaries?
What are
mercenaries?
In his 1997 book entitled "Lethal Weapons: Why Africa needs
alternatives to hired guns", Nathan describes mercenaries as "soldiers hired by
a foreign government or rebel movement to contribute to the escalation of armed
conflict â whether directly by engaging in hostilities, or indirectly through
training, logistics, intelligence or advisory services â and who do so outside
the authority of the government and defence force of their own country". This
description aptly sums up the "dirty work" of mercenaries.
The 1997
Additional Protocol of the Geneva Convention article 47 categorises a mercenary
as someone who:
l Is specifically recruited locally or abroad in order
to fight in an armed conflict;
l Does, in fact, take direct part in the
hostilities;
l Is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially
by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a
party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that
promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed
forces of that party;
l Is neither a national of a party to the conflict
nor a resident of a territory controlled by a party to the conflict;
l
Is not a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict; and
l
Has not been sent by a state which is not a party to the conflict on official
duty as a member of the armed forces.
The descriptions by Nathan and
article 47 of the 1997 Additional Protocol of the Geneva Convention clearly show
that the 67 suspects arrested in Zimbabwe were mercenaries on a mission that
went wrong.
First, as Nick du Toit confessed, the group was on a mission
to over-throw President Obiang. Secondly the group arrested in Zimbabwe
comprised of 20 South Africans, 18 Namibians, 23 Angolans, two Congolese (DRC)
and one Zimbabwean with a South African passport. There was no one from
Equatorial Guinea.
And as investigations show, the leader of the group,
Simon Mann, had been promised cash payment of one million British pounds and oil
mining rights in the Malabo regions by Mr Moto, who had allegedly hired them to
do the job.
The task given to the suspects, their nationalities and the
offers made clearly show that these were mercenaries caught before action.
It has to be remembered that mercenaries are never pushed by an ideology
to get into combat like the likes of Che Guevara. All they want is money and
resources, especially minerals.
History of mercenaries in Africa
A magazine called "Soldiers of Fortune" once described the mercenary
profession as the "second oldest job in the world". If this is true, then itâs a
worrying fact.
According to Issa A. Mansaray in the "ExpoTime magazine,
mercenary operations in Africa started way back in the 1960s with soldiers like
Gilbert Bourgeaud, known as Colonel Bob Denard, "Mad" Mike Hoare and "Black"
Jacques Schramme known across Africa for their involvement in almost all the
major battlefronts on the continent. Reports say these "professional private
soldiers" fought in Angola, the DRC, Sierra Leone and Mozambique.
Originally, mercenaries in Africa were hired by colonial governments to
destabilise liberation movements that were fighting for independence in their
respective countries and also target powerful individuals who were thought to be
spearheading the liberation of Africa.
In her paper entitled "Corporate
Mercenarism in Southern Africa, Bernedette Muthien says: "During the height of
colonial times, Cecil John Rhodes recruited âadventurous menâ, both African and
European, for his corporate armies in Southern Africa, as part of his imperial
quest in the region.
"Twentieth century mercenarism is best represented
by two men â Bob Denard and "Mad" Mike Hoare â who led ad-hoc bands of
mercenaries in, amongst other places, the Congo, the Comoros, the Seychelles and
Angola.
Denard and Hoare, as employees of colonial powers, notably
France and Belgium, fighting against African independence movements, contribute
significantly to the contemporary image of mercenaries as racist agents of
oppression and opposed to the liberation of the African people.
"Rhodesiaâs standing army, while based on conscription, did engage the
services of a number of mercenaries, especially in its Special Air Services,
modelled after the British SAS.
"Most of these soldiers joined the
apartheid-era South African Defence Force after their country became Zimbabwe."
Through the works of these "messiahs of terror", people like Dulcie, an
anti-apartheid activist, Richard Turner, a university lecturer, David Webster,
an ANC activist and many liberation war fighters were murdered. Even the
assassination in 1961 of the then UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammerskjold, was
said to have been the work of mercenaries.
Several coups were conducted
across Africa and many rebel movements in the continent are given military
support by these "dogs of war" whose specialty is to "kill for gain".
How do mercenaries operate?
Mercenaries operate under the cover
of what has become to be known as "private military companies" that openly claim
that their business is to offer military assistance in training, intelligence
and research.
Such private military companies are like the now defunct
Executive Outcomes of South Africa, Sandline International based in London and
Military Professional Resources Incorporated in Washington. There are many other
such companies around the world. One would call this "corporate mercenarism".
These companies recruit their staff mainly from former military
personnel or former intelligence officers.
In Southern Africa, global
demilitarisation and demobilisation are believed to be the key forces driving
mercenarism as the demobilised soldiers and arms "have found ready markets in
regional conflicts", like the one in Equatorial Guinea.
Because of their
love of money and mining concessions, mercenaries can easily switch sides
depending on who has offered them more money or more mining concessions.
In September last year, the BBC reported that mercenaries do the work
that the "US government canât afford to have its own soldiers doing". In short
mercenaries do jobs that governments "wonât or canât do".
In this
regard, with the way the US-led forces are fast losing the grip on Iraq, it
wouldnât be a surprise to hear that Mr George W. Bush has hired mercenaries to
assist his soldiers in the illegal war.
Said the BBC: "When UN
peacekeepers operate in places like Bosnia, they are bound to a national
military code of justice and can be held accountable for their actions.
Mercenaries are subject only to the laws of the market place."
In short,
they cannot be held accountable for any of their actions even if they slaughter
thousands of people like the genocide in Rwanda.
Another important point
to note is that mercenaries "ignore the underlying causes in the societies they
operate, resulting in renewed social raptures upon departure".
On whose
behalf do mercenaries carry their activities?
When the Minister of Home
Affairs, Cde Kembo Mohadi, said the 67 suspected mercenaries arrested in
Zimbabwe had been aided by the British intelligence service M16, the American
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Spanish secret service, the BBCâs
Alastair Leithead in South Africa described this link as "spurious".
Alastair added that there was growing evidence that the mystery does not
relate to a coup attempt gone wrong. Of course, Alastair must be eating his own
words after the confession by Nick du Toit.
Surely it would be naive to
think that Mr Moto (in Spain) just came up with the idea to hire the mercenaries
and went ahead with the plan without assistance from the Spanish secret service.
A deeper look at the whole saga might even reveal that the idea to hire
mercenaries could have been suggested to Mr Moto by these secret agents.
Amnesty International in its July- August magazine reported that: "The
UK has a long history of the unregulated supplying of mercenaries and military
training through brokers such as Sandline International."
This suggests
that while a rebel leader may come out in the open and declare that he has hired
mercenaries, the leader could just be a cover-up for some government like in
this burning case it could be the Spanish government that wants Mr Obiang out of
power as he could be denying them access to the countryâs minerals.
So
the Spanish government can just sponsor Mr Moto to get into power and once in
power they know that they will have access to loot that countryâs minerals.
This way the mercenaries would just be used as agents to "conquer and
recolonise" the Equatorial Guinea. One writer once wrote that mercenaries
"constitute an advance guard for the construction of new corporate empires".
Besides being an "advance guard for the construction of new corporate
empires", mercenaries can also be a "covert wing of Western governmentsâ foreign
policy".
Like in a case where they are sent to Equatorial Guinea through
Mr Moto to fight not only for their gain but also for the interests of the
Spanish government.
The BBC reported in its September 24 2003 edition
that the Pentagon was increasingly using private armies and had given $300
billion worth of contracts to such companies that "do job that governments canât
or wonât do".
Although the mercenaries are given a nice description like
"private armies" it is a fact that these "dogs of war" have caused untold
suffering around the world.
The fight against mercenaries is not an easy
one considering the billions of dollars involved and the enticing mineral
concessions, but this fight is necessary and has to be won.
Some have
called for the effective regulation of mercenaries, but this option sounds
suicidal, especially to countries in Africa. To begin with, because many
countries in Africa havenât got the large amounts of money required by
mercenaries, this means the only option is to give mineral and land concessions
to the powerful Western countries.
National, regional and international
bodies should put in place punitive mechanisms to deal with mercenaries. The
putting in place of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use,
Financing and Training of Mercenaries of 1989 and the OAU (now AU) Convention
for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa are positive steps in dealing with
these "dogs of war".
There should be no leniency when dealing with
mercenaries and the remarks made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Stan
Mudenge, that the suspected mercenaries could be hanged if found guilty are
welcome.
Nations, especially the weaker nations, should work together
closely to stop these "killers for gain" and in this regard, it was pleasing to
hear that a team from Equatorial Guinea was already in the country to exchange
notes with their Zimbabwean counterparts on the issue of the arrested
mercenaries.
It was also pleasing to hear Mr Obiang telling the world
that he got a tip that the 15 mercenaries were on their way to his country from
South African President Thabo Mbeki. This is exactly what it should be like.
Mercenaries have killed and maimed many innocent people around the
world, the world has watched "while they kill our prophets" and so "no mercy to
the merciless this time". The "messiahs of terror" should face the music so that
next time they will think twice before they agree to play it dirty.
The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
l'anarchie"
