SABC
March 14, 2004, 21:15
Charges have been laid against 12 South Africans, who form part of the group
of 67 alleged mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe, says their legal representative.
The two charges are in accordance with the Immigration Act and the Firearm
Act.
Initially harsh penalties were expected to be imposed on the
accused. Their lawyer says the group is in high spirits despite the conditions
in a prison they are being held in outside Harare. The South African Higher
Commission is expected to meet with the Zimbabwean government
tomorrow.
60 out of 67 charged
Meanwhile, Out of the 67
detainees, 60 have been charged and will appear in a Harare court tomorrow after
Zimbabwe police also charged them today with attempting to purchase firearms
illegally and breaching immigration laws.
The 60 are among a group of 67
men arrested by Zimbabwe authorities one week ago when their cargo plane landed
at Harare International Airport. Lawyer Jonathan Samkange says the men will deny
the allegations. He says all 67 men on board the plane will eventually be
charged under the same law. Three other men who came to meet them at the airport
will be charged with purchasing the weapons without a certificate. - Additional
reporting Sapa
60 accused over weapons deal
From correspondents in Harare
March 15, 2004
ZIMBABWE police today charged 60 suspected mercenaries detained in the
country with attempting to purchase firearms without a certificate, their lawyer
said.
The 60 were among a group of some 67 men arrested by Zimbabwe
authorities a week ago when their cargo plane landed at Harare International
Airport.
The Zimbabwean government said they were on their way to the small west
African country of Equatorial Guinea to stage a coup.
"Sixty people have been charged with attempting to purchase firearms without
a firearms certificate," said Jonathan Samkange, a lawyer for the group.
They were also charged with breaching immigration law, he said.
"My clients deny the allegations."
He said all 67 men on board the Boeing 727-100 would eventually be charged,
while three other men, who came to meet them at the airport, would be charged
with purchasing weapons without a certificate.
Samkange named the three men as Simon Mann, Lawrence Horn and Malani Moyo.
He said Mann claimed to have an agreement signed with the state-owned
Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) to purchase weapons, including AK 47s,
grenades, rocket launchers and ammunition.
"How is it unlawful where there is an agreement?" said Samkange.
He said the passengers on board the plane said they had been hired in South
Africa as security guards for a government-owned diamond mine in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).
The claim was repeated last week by British-based Logo Logistics, which
operated the plane at the time it was impounded.
Zimbabwe Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi however said the men were on
their way to oil-rich Equatorial Guinea to join other coup plotters planning to
oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and replace him with exiled opposition
figure Severo Moto Nsa.
Agence
France-Presse
Mercenaries & oil
As the days go by, more details may emerge about the planeload of
mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe, especially if the government there is able to
put those captured on trial. But the political implications are clear.
According to a former British special forces officer who talked to the
Zimbabwean government, the 64 men on the plane were headed toward Equatorial
Guinea. Their bosses had allegedly bought off top officials of the police and
army there who would do nothing to stop them from ousting the president.
Zimbabwe government sources say British, U.S. and Spanish secret services are
involved. Corporations in all three countries have material interests in the
area, as does French imperialism.
Equatorial Guinea is a former Spanish colony with a population of only half a
million people. It is about the size of Maryland and sits on the West Coast of
Africa, just north of the Equator and south of Cameroon.
Its main natural resource? Oil.
Lots of oil, especially off its coast in the Bight of Biafra. Some of this
offshore oil is contested.
Whether there is documentary proof linking the "privatized" soldiers to
Western secret services, whether specific oil monopolies are named, there is no
doubt that Washington's unending use of military force to build its empire is at
the root of this new attempted crime.
The imperialists think the 19th century is back. As in Hawaii back then, they
think now that a planeload of adventurers from the "military service" industry
can carry out "regime change."
Washington uses military power to take over resources, just as the
imperialists all did before the Russian Revolution. Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,
Iraq and Haiti bear this out. Washington has announced further military targets
in Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba, and it has tried to subvert Venezuela.
U.S. and British imperialism have also targeted Zimbabwe for "regime
change."
You might think these adventures would be discouraged by the hard lessons the
Iraqi resistance is teaching the Pentagon. But if enough profit is involved,
capitalists will take the risk.
Reprinted from the March 18, 2004, issue of Workers World
newspaper
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed.
From The Observer (UK), 14
March
Did Africa coup begin in
Chelsea?
Antony Barnett and Patrick Smith on the failed putsch in
Equatorial Guinea
A tycoon who lives in a mansion off the Kings Road in Chelsea
has emerged at the centre of accusations over an alleged coup attempt in
Equatorial Guinea. In a remarkable tale of bizarre twists, millionaire Ely
Calil, who once advised Lord Archer, has been accused of financing an operation
to hire foreign mercenaries to overthrow the government of the oil-rich West
African country. The Information Minister of Equatorial Guinea has alleged Calil
arranged to pay Old Etonian and former SAS soldier, Simon Mann, $5m to hire a
group of mercenaries to oust the ailing President Obiang. In the 1980s Mann
founded Executive Outcomes, one of the world's most successful mercenary
outfits, which was involved in controversial operations in Sierra Leone and
Angola. Calil has been accused of hiring Mann to help his friend Severo Moto,
the exiled Equatorial Guinean politician now living in Spain who harbours
ambitions to return as President. It is alleged that, had the coup been
successful, its backers, including Calil, would be given oil concessions in the
tiny state that is now producing more 250,000 barrels a day.
Calil has hired Margaret Thatcher's favourite PR guru Lord Bell
to rebut the alleged claims against him, which he says are an elaborate set-up.
The allegations will be an unwelcome spotlight on Calil's commercial activities.
The Lebanese-born millionaire, now a British citizen, made his fortune in oil
trading with Nigeria. In June 2002, he was arrested by French police in
connection with the payments of illegal commissions by a subsidiary of the
French oil giant Elf-Aquitaine to the Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. Calil was
later released on appeal, although the payments are still under investigation.
After the arrest in Zimbabwe last week of 60 mercenaries - who now face possible
death sentences for their alleged involvement in the coup - Equatorial Guinea
Information Minister Agustin Nze Nfumu claimed the plot was financed by Calil.
This was given credence by a former South African Special Forces commander, Nick
du Toit, who worked with Mann. Du Toit was arrested on Tuesday with 14 others in
Equatorial Guinea and accused of helping in the plot. He has now turned state
witness and on Thursday night he went on state television to denounce Calil and
Moto.
South African sources say the genesis of the plot lay in a
series of meetings in London between Calil and Mann in early January. On the
agenda was the situation in Equatorial Guinea, which they agreed looked
increasingly unstable as the struggle to succeed the ailing Obiang heated up.
The choices looked grim: Obiang would die and be replaced by his favourite son,
Teodorin, widely seen as dangerously unstable; there were be a battle for power
within the country's tiny ruling clan; or there would be an externally financed
putsch. Calil and Mann, say Du Toit and his colleagues in South Africa favoured
the third option. Like all other allegations levelled against him, Calil has
denied this version of events. Yet since Equatorial Guinea started producing oil
five years ago, Calil has cultivated a relationship with Moto. Should the Obiang
regime fall, Moto is the most credible replacement.
On 15 November, 2003, Mann's British Virgin Island's company
Logo Logistics signed an agreement with a group of Lebanese investors in the
Asian Trading and Investment Group SAL. Mann's associates insist Asian Trading
is linked to Calil and was used to channel funds for the overthrow of Obiang.
Calil denies any such association or knowledge of Asian Trading's activities.
Under the terms of the deal - seen by The Observer - the Lebanese investors were
to provide Mann's company with $5m for 'mining, fishing, aviation and commercial
security projects in West Africa'. Mann also signed an agreement with Du Toit on
1 December, which guaranteed financing from Logo Logistics of up to $2 million
for 'unspecified projects'. Yet like much in Africa's history of coups, the
truth is hard to ascertain. The Observer has learnt that Du Toit, who has made
the allegations against Calil and Moto, himself set up a company in December
2003 - Triple Option Trading - that was half-owned by three senior members of
Equatorial Guinea's ruling political elite. One theory is that Du Toit was used
by the government to infiltrate the plot.
In late January, Du Toit flew to Johannesburg to brief Mann.
Joining in the discussions was Charles Burrows and a senior executive of Logo
Logistics, now run by Mann. Burrows rubbished the coup accusations, saying the
mercenaries were hired as security for a mining operation in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. Supporting this claim is that the equipment on the cargo
plane seized in Zimbabwe contained little military equipment. But it has now
been suggested that, in February, Mann had flown to Harare to discuss a
consignment of arms with officers of the state-owned Zimbabwe Defence
Industries. Sources close to Mann reported that the list given to Zimbabwe
included AK47s, pistols, ammunition and mortars. Mann is alleged to have made
contact with Zimbabwe Defence Industries, through two intermediaries, one of
whom was arrested in Harare. The plan was for the arms to be delivered on 19 or
20 February to the airstrip at Kolwezi in Congo, under the control of a local
rebel leader. There a plane would crossload the weapons from Harare, refuel and
fly on to Equatorial Guinea. But on the appointed day neither rebel leader nor
fuel turned up.
On 6 March, Mann went to Zimbabwe from the Democratic Republic
of Congo, accompanied by two South Africans. It is claimed their task was to
prepare the way for a group of soldiers from South Africa. On Sunday, 7 March,
Logo Logistics' Boeing 727 was made ready. Captain Neil Steyl and co-pilot
Hendrick Hamman took off at 4pm with 65 soldiers on board. On board were two
packages of cash: one of $30,000 for fuel and landing fees and the other of
$100,000 to be used inside Equatorial Guinea. Landing in Harare, Steyl taxied to
the military wing, where everyone on board was arrested. The Obiang regime
announced the arrest of 15 mercenaries led by Du Toit. On Tuesday, Obiang went
on television to accuse Moto of plotting the coup. By Thursday night, Du Toit
confessed on television. He looked relaxed for someone who might face execution.
He later phoned his wife in South Africa telling her to expect him back by the
weekend.
Patrick Smith is editor of Africa Confidential
Zimbabwe opposition
reports pre-election attacks on supporters
Staff Reporter
HARARE, 15
March 2004
In
Zimbabwe, the main opposition party is reporting attacks on its supporters in
the run-up to a special election for a crucial parliamentary seat.
HARARE: The
Movement for Democratic Change says three of its members distributing leaflets
in the constituency were attacked Tuesday, several houses belonging to known
opposition supporters were vandalised and the MDC candidate himself was stoned.
Last weekend, an opposition rally in the constituency, which was to be
addressed by its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was stopped by a group of about 30
ruling party supporters. MDC activists have gone into hiding for fear of further
violence.
Those are among the events that have marred the campaign in special elections
to be held in a constituency on the outskirts of Harare at the end of March. The
seat was vacated by an MDC legislator who fled the country last year fearing for
his safety.
The seat is crucial for the opposition party, because losing it would bring
President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, ZANU-PF, within a whisker of a
two-thirds majority in the national parliament. With a two-thirds majority,
ZANU-PF could amend the constitution.
MDC admits it made a mistake by naming a candidate, rather than following the
usual procedure of allowing potential candidates to reach consensus among
themselves. MDC Spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said this has curtailed public
debate on issues important for the opposition constituency, and may backfire.
Moreover, he said, fear of violence against opposition supporters may keep
many voters away from the polls.
Some political analysts say the MDC may well lose this traditionally safe
seat, as well as another one in the Matabeleland province. That, they say, would
leave the ruling ZANU-PF just two seats short of a two-thirds majority in
parliament.
(Voice of America
News)
Talk, Mugabe
urged
Staff Reporter
ARUSHA, 15 March 2004
Tanzania
urges Zimbabwe to renew talks with opposition party.
ARUSHA: Tanzania
has urged the Zimbabwean government to renew talks with its opposition party,
the Movement for Democratic Change.
Tanzanian foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete has told reporters at the end of a
two-day meeting of officials - from the Southern African Development Community
or SADC in Arusha, Tanzania, that dialogue was the best option for resolving
problems.
At the same time, Kikwete said Seychelles had decided to pull out of SADC, as
the trade is known, citing financial problems.
He said SADC officials were still encouraging Seychelles to change its mind
and there were greater economic benefits in a larger grouping.
The trade bloc's southern African members are South Africa, Botswana,
Namibia, Zambia, Mauritius, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe and
Malawi. Tanzania in the East Africa and Congo in the central Africa are also
members. SAPA
(ChannelAfrica.org)
Zimbabwe mourn footballers
Steve Vickers
BBC Sport, Harare
Two fans are among the victims
Three players from the Zimbabwean Premier League club CAPS United and
two supporters died in a road accident in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The players include former Zimbabwe international midfielder Blessing
Makunike and striker Shingirai Alron.
Police have not released the name of
the other player as his family has not yet been informed.
"It's a complete tragedy, I'm lost for words "
CAPS United chairman Andy
Hodges
The team was returning to Harare from Bulawayo after beating Sundowns
2-1 in a league match.
The three players did not travel in the team bus, and
the car they were using hit the pillar of a bridge and caught fire.
They
were trapped and burnt to death.
"It's a complete tragedy, I'm lost for
words," said CAPS United chairman Andy Hodges.
Makunike, who was 27 years
old, had 14 caps for the Zimbabwe national team and scored two goals.
CAPS
United have won their first two matches of the season and were looking likely to
mount a strong challenge for the league title.
In 2001 the team was also
stunned by a road accident, when the car that coach Steve Kwashi was driving hit
a tree on his way back from a match.
He sustained serious head injuries and
was not able to return to his post.
Mugabe plays the good man in mercenary
saga
Story by CHEGE MBITIRU
-
Publication Date: 03/15/2004 |
|
Daily Nation, Kenya
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe
must be feeling very satisfied at least for the time being. He only gets a good
mention in his country’s state-controlled media. Even there barbs pop. That’s
why information and publicity minister is wielding a hatchet.
A journalistic purge is aimed at
enemies of Mr Mugabe’s government. It’s intimidation. Parliamentary elections
are due late this year. Mr Mugabe’s Zimbabwe National African Union-Patriotic
Front party doesn’t like losing, even fairly.
Champions of democracy become,
without fail, furious at attempts to muzzle the Press. That’s curtailing freedom
of expression, they shout. There wasn’t a whimper, internationally, about
minister Jonathan Moyo’s crackdown last week. Mr Mugabe was a statesman,
gleefully so.
"We have done nothing more than is
our duty as an African country; we have done nothing more than is our duty as an
independent country; we have done nothing more than is our duty as a member of
the international community, and we have done nothing more than is our duty at
international law," Mr Mugabe intoned.
The report is by The Herald,
a newspaper in Mr Mugabe’s media stable. He was addressing a delegation from
Equatorial Guinea led by Minister of Justice Ruben Maye Nsue Mange. The
delegation had conveyed President Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s gratitude. A week
yesterday, Zimbabwe arrested 64 suspected mercenaries said to be on the way to
oust Mr Nguema.
The bulk of them were South
Africans. Mr Nguema later said President Thabo Mbeki had alerted him. They story
is the men had stopped in Harare to pick up arms and ammunitions bought from
Zimbabwe Defence Industries at $180,000.
Mr Mbeki had done a good job. Before
the Harare arrests, authorities in Equatorial Guinea arrested 15 members of a
supposedly advance party. Their leader, Nic du Toit reportedly confessed. The
mission was not to kill Mr Nguema. It was just to force him out and install an
opponent, Severo Moto Nsa, now in Spanish exile.
Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister
Kembo Mohadi added juicier details. He said Simon Mann, leader of the lot in
Harare, said the fee for Mr Nguema’s overthrow was oil concessions and two
million pounds sterling, a half in advance. Even more startling British, United
States and Spanish secret services were in the know. Authorities in Zimbabwe and
Equatorial Guinea will undoubtedly question the alleged mercenaries and tell the
world another funny story. At the moment Mr Nguema has his version. He hinted
unnamed parties want a deeper reach in his country’s oil
till.
As countries go Equatorial Guinea
isn’t much. It’s a mere 28,051 sq km and has an estimated population of 474,214.
Thanks to international law it has a considerable continental shelf in the
Atlantic Ocean. Under the water is natural gas and oil. They are worth enough to
turn all citizens into millionaires. It isn’t so, although Equatorial Guinea is
Africa’s third largest oil exporter after Nigeria and Angola. Eight
international companies have concessions.
Since the discovery of oil,
Equatorial Guinea has had disputes with Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe, Nigeria
and Gabon. These countries have interests in the Gulf of Guinea oil deposits.
There’s no dispute though that Equatorial Guinea owns 1.1 billion barrels of oil
reserves. That’s good money. Where there’s good money, ruthlessness
reigns.
Even if Equatorial Guinea had no
oil, Mr Nguema would still have enemies. A former soldier, Mr Nguema tinkered
with various prime jobs. Why not? His uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema was
president. In 1979, the current Mr Nguema did not only depose his uncle, he
executed him. By all accounts he went on to preside over a corrupt, ethnocentric
and oppressive government.
Mr Nguema is master of hoodwinking.
Officially the country has 13 political parties. The government last month
distributed, equally, good cash to each of them. Parliamentary and municipal
elections are due next month. Mr Nguema’s Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
isn’t used to losing. It’s like Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.
That doesn’t explain Mr Mugabe’s
chivalry on behalf of his comrade-in- clinging-to-power through ways that turn
leeches to dinosaurs. As told, the coup plot tale is too amateurish to be true.
It’s even more so because some of the individuals involved know plenty about
conspiracies and war. South Africa’s intelligence knows them. In any case, even
stupid mercenaries don’t shop for weapons in a state
corporation.
Most plausible is that somebody in
Harare was deep in the affair. Someone with clout, and the obvious suspect is Mr
Mbeki, got wind of the mess and said 'No.' Harare should stop stretching others’
imagination, Mr Mugabe’s sudden statesmanship not withstanding.
Mr Mbitiru, a freelance
journalist, is a former 'Sunday Nation' Managing
editor. | |
Guns for hire thrive in
Africa
More than 60 men in Zimbabwe have been
accused of planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Ever since
the 1974 book "The Dogs of War" portrayed the exploits of mercenaries in Africa,
it's been known that "soldiers of fortune" are powerful players in this
continent's conflicts.
But a drama now unfolding in both Zimbabwe and the tiny oil-producing nation
of Equatorial Guinea is highlighting the growing demand for mercenaries in West
Africa, a volatile region that's becoming a key exporter of oil to the United
States.
The saga began March 7 when Zimbabwean officials stormed a Boeing 727 in
Harare, the capital. On board they found "military materiel" and more than 60
men, including South Africans, Angolans, and Namibians. All were accused of
plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea and may face the death penalty. They are
currently awaiting charges.
Equatorial Guinea's repressive regime, meanwhile, has had mercenary help of
its own. In 2000 the oil-rich government hired a private American security firm
called MPRI to beef up its military. The contract didn't last long, but it hints
at why mercenaries - both the corporate and shadowy types - are thriving in this
region.
For one thing, most West African soldiers "are very poorly educated and don't
have much training" or good equipment, says Ross Herbert, a research fellow at
the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg. Combat is
often "very crude - where people shoot off their guns in random order" and
scatter into the bush.
That makes them easy for elite troops, like the team detained in Zimbabwe, to
overpower. Simon Mann, for instance, was reportedly connected to the now-defunct
South African mercenary firm Executive Outcomes, which was active in Angola and
Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Mr. Mann is also reportedly a cofounder of the
British private military firm Sandline International.
Logo Logistics, meanwhile, is the British company that owns the Boeing 727.
It insists the team was headed to the Congo to guard a mine, but it hasn't
divulged details about the mine. Also, according to a publication called "Africa
Confidential," the coup plot may be connected to a wealthy Lebanese businessman
named Ely Calil. Mr. Calil has ties to oil companies in the region. Several
American firms, including ExxonMobil and Halliburton, have operations in
Equatorial Guinea.
The country's dictatorial president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is
reportedly ailing and has apparently been grooming his son, Teodorin, to take
over. But some observers see Teodorin as unstable. This may be one reason for
outsiders to try to orchestrate a coup - and bring into power an exiled leader
named Severo Moto, who lives in Spain.
Equatorial Guinea, nestled in the crook of Africa's west coast, is the
region's third-biggest oil producer. In 1995, the year a big oil field was
discovered, the country's per capita annual income was $370. By 2002, it had
jumped to $5,000. But as in most of West Africa, much of the wealth is held by
the ruling elite. This can spark envy - and coup attempts, thus boosting a
government's desire to protect itself by hiring military muscle.
But oil is just one reason for West Africa's growing demand for guns for
hire. The US, for instance, is now more engaged in West Africa. But with troops
tied down in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, it's increasingly hiring private
security firms to represent it.
In a recent speech, Theresa Whelan, a top official for Africa at the US
Department of Defense, put it this way: "The use of contractors in Africa ...
means that the US can be supportive in trying to ameliorate regional crises
without necessarily having to put US troops on the ground, which is often times
a very difficult political decision."
So, in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and elsewhere, private firms are training
militaries to become more professional, courtesy of the US government.
These firms are also key to supporting peacekeeping efforts. The US has paid
them to provide logistics support - transportation, fuel, and other supplies -
to African-led peacekeeping units in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast.
"If you didn't have private companies doing what they're doing in West
Africa, things would fall apart," says Doug Brooks, head of the International
Peace Operations Association, an industry trade group based near Washington. He
argues that private firms should be allowed to run full-blown peacekeeping
operations, saying they could do it better and cheaper than the United Nations
and regional peacekeepers. He once calculated that private firms could stop all
Africa's wars for just $1.1 billion.
But many people worry private firms can be roguish and unaccountable.
Jan Breytenbach, founder of South Africa's infamous apartheid-era Battalion
32, a mercenary group, warns that today's seemingly upstanding private-security
firms will employ ex-soldiers "under false pretenses" in order to get them
involved in clandestine operations. "You can think you're being hired to protect
a diamond mine," he says, "but then you end up fighting other people" - or
participating in a coup. He cautions ex-military men: "It's better to stay out
of this stuff all together; otherwise you'll get caught with your pants
down."
 |
TOM BROWN - STAFF
|
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