How British Army Man
Organised
Bombing Raids, Mercenary Operations
By PAUL REDFERN
THE
EASTAFRICAN
A former British army captain has
been named in a report as being involved in the provision of military equipment
which has helped to perpetuate the war in the east of the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Andrew Smith, who was accused by the
United Nations earlier this year of allegedly organising bombing raids in the
DRC on behalf of President Joseph Kabila in an effort to suppress rebel forces,
is said to have received tens of thousands of dollars a month for his
work.
The Observer newspaper also
alleges that Smith ran a mercenary operation in the DRC and had documents
showing that the former army captain had traded with the notorious Ukrainian
arms dealer Leonid Minin (see The EastAfrican, November
18-24).
Smith denies he knows Minin and says
his firm is primarily a cargo-carrying business dealing with commodities like
food and computers. He acknowledges, however, that his company Avient has
ferried troops around the region and also leased Russian-made transport aircraft
to the Zimbabwean government for use in the DRC, but denies having broken the EU
arms embargo on the ferrying of arms to the DRC. The operations, he says, were
conducted through Zimbabwe, where his company is registered.
Smith said his actions were legal
and took place over three years ago. He maintains that the British government
knew about the matter. "We have worked with the governments of Zimbabwe and the
DRC who are official, organised governments of countries. We certainly don't
work for any rebel groups or terrorists.
"I am not denying that we carried
military equipment for the end-user governments, which is a perfectly legal
thing to do. (But) I did check everything with the British High Commissioner at
the time. We have never been involved in the sale of goods at all, nor have we
carried any military hardware out of the European Community, so we have not
broken any EU or UN embargoes."
The British MP who highlighted
concerns over the air traffic control system bought by the Tanzanian government
from a UK firm, Norman Lamb, wants an inquiry into the matter and into whether
the British High Commission had indeed been informed.
This is by no means the first time
that former British army officers have been accused of involvement in mercenary
type activities in Africa.
In 1998, there was a huge row over
Sandline International's supplying of arms to the Sierre Leonean government
despite a UN arms embargo.
Sandline was run by former British
colonel Tim Spicer, who revealed that his operations had the approval of the
British High Commissioner.
