• In Zimbabwe We Don't Have Protest Marches, We Have Protest Runs!
• Zimbabwe says UK row poisons foreign ties
• SADC Plans to Create Common Market By 2012
• Zimbabwe's Small Farmers Expecting Record Harvests
• Ambitious plans to roll out ARVs
• Reporters For Foreign Media Violate Currency Law
• Moyo threatens SA media with legal action
• MOZAMBIQUE: Thousands stranded after river bursts its banks
• Zimbabwe Says Suspected Mercenaries May Get Death Penalty
• Alleged mercenaries may have been SADF men
• "Mercenaries": Malabo, declaration by commander of operation to overthrow Obiang
• Pretoria confirms link between plane and coup plot
• "Mercenaries": Harare accuses Spanish, US and British intelligence
• Alleged mercenary leader unveils coup plot
• SA pilot on 'mercenary' plane
• All a dreadful misunderstanding: Logo
• 'SA president tipped us off'

SOKWANELE

Enough is Enough

Zimbabwe 

PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY

We have a fundamental right to freedom of expression!

Sokwanele reporter

09 March 2004

Yesterday, true to form, Zimbabwean police arrested Jenni Williams, member of the executive of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), and two colleagues under Section 15 of the repressive Public Order and Security Act, which declares illegal the utterance of statements that could lead to public unrest. 

WOZA women have been arrested several times in the past, at times in a violent fashion, for attempting to demonstrate against violence.  This group of women from civil society are committed to ending violence and repression in Zimbabwe in a peaceful manner.  They are women who come from all walks of life, the majority of them poverty stricken victims of Mugabe’s despotic regime.

Despite the arrest of Williams and the imminent threat of further arrests, around 80 women gathered at the St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral on Monday morning (8^th March) in honour of International Women’s Day.  Several riot vehicles circled the church, and the police maintained a watchful vigil from a distance.  The women sang hymns and prayed for peace in a rather confused fashion without any leadership present.  The WOZA executive knew if they showed up they too would be incarcerated.

At the end of their mournful session, the women were at a loss for direction, when finally one old “gogo” (granny) still in mourning over the recent death of her husband, stood up and declared they had to do something.  They agreed they should carry out the planned march, but to avoid police interference decided they would move in small groups to a destination several blocks away. 

Once in the center of town they raised their placards, proclaiming “Stop violence against women” and “Say no to violence”.  The small demonstration ended without incident, perhaps because it was so small and peaceful or perhaps because the police were being monitored for any heavy handedness by the South African media.

This event highlights the sad and sorry state of the nation.  These women live in terror, constantly aware of their vulnerability, consumed by the fear of the very authorities who are meant to protect them.  The very real threat of violence through the presence of riot police is as frightening as actual violence.  State agents tasked with enforcing the law have been reduced to state-sponsored thugs, who are obviously willing if necessary  to oppress their mothers, sisters and daughters whose only desire is to nurture their families.

Ends

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Visit:   www.sokwanele.com

         www.zvakwana.com

By Stella Mapenzauswa

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe says its row with Britain is poisoning links
with the West as officials step up attacks on "lies" in the foreign media.

Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told diplomats that British opposition to
Zimbabwe's controversial seizure of white-owned farms had driven a wedge in
relations that was exacerbated by Western media reports on the country.

"The problem of Zimbabwe arose as a bilateral issue between Zimbabwe and the
United Kingdom over land. That continues to poison our relations with your
countries," Mudenge said.

"Unless that is resolved...the poison will continue; to have the lies being
made in (British newspaper) The Sun and the BBC influence your own
countries."

President Robert Mugabe's government has seen relations with Western
countries deteriorate in recent months amid opposition accusations of a
political crackdown following his controversial 2002 re-election.

Opposition and Western observers said the election was flawed, although
Mugabe said he won fairly.

Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth last year after the group of mainly
former British colonies renewed its suspension, and both the European Union
and the United States recently renewed sanctions on Zimbabwe's ruling elite.

Britain, Zimbabwe's colonial ruler until 1980, has been among the most
vociferous of Mugabe's critics -- leading Zimbabwe officials to accuse
London of deliberately promoting opposition to Mugabe's rule.

This week Zimbabwe announced it had seized some 67 foreigners accused of
acting as foreign mercenaries, and said one of the suspects used to be a
member of Britain's elite Special Air Service (SAS) commando unit.

Mudenge echoed official statements which have blamed the foreign -- and
particularly British -- media for spreading unfounded reports about the
political situation in the country.

"The public is told so many lies by the British media. I know we have
differences with the UK but to go and lie as the BBC did is unworthy,"
Mudenge said, referring to a recent BBC documentary which charged that young
Zimbabweans were forced into camps and taught to beat and kill opposition
activists.

Mudenge said Western travel and business sanctions slapped on Mugabe and his
lieutenants were hitting ordinary Zimbabweans already hurt by the country's
acute economic crisis.

"These sanctions are meant to hurt and they are hurting the people of
Zimbabwe," Mudenge said.

Mugabe, who turned 80 last month and has been in power since independence in
1980, says sabotage by his opponents, rather than his mismanagement, have
brought what was once one of Africa's most promising economies to its knees.

Vanguard (Lagos)

March 10, 2004
Posted to the web March 10, 2004

DAR ES SALAAM

Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries intend to
create a common market in the region in 2012, a top SADC official said
yesterday. "The plan is to have member states sign a free trade agreement by
2008, customs union protocol in 2010 and a common market pact in 2012," SADC
Executive Secretary Prega Ramsamy said in a statement ahead of SADC's
ministerial council meeting at Arusha in northern Tanzania on Friday.

Ramsamy said Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa will on Friday officially
launch SADC's Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), a
comprehensive programme on development and economic reform in the area.
Mkapa is the chairman of the 14-member SADC, which also include Angola,
Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and
Zimbabwe, but Seychelles has officially asked to pull out of the grouping.

Ramsamy said the ministerial council would also approve SADC's 2004-2005
budget and draw the agenda for its extra-ordinary summit scheduled for
Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on May 14. South Africa called
on African countries to boost trade with each other on Tuesday as a way of
overcoming high import tariffs charged by major economies such as Europe and
the United States. Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin, speaking at
launch of Ugandan coffee brand in Cape Town, said high import tariffs
charged by Europe and United States on Africa's agricultural products were a
drag on development on the continent.

He said one of the best ways to beat the problem was for countries to
increase trade with each other. "At the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
meeting in Cancun last year, we were pushing strongly to deal with tariff
escalation, which affects all agricultural products," Erwin said.

"We have to open our economies to each other, we only need to look at Europe
to see how they have benefited.

The effort to reduce global trade barriers, launched in November 2001 in the
Qatari capital Doha, ran aground last September with the collapse of a WTO
ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

The meeting ended in bitter acrimony between developed and developing
nations, with Brazil and China leading the poorer nations in a push for a
fairer deal on world trade, especially in the agricultural sector. Erwin
said African countries needed to set out rules and regulations on customs
clearances and visa requirements. "It has always been bizarre that we have a
sophisticated set of regulations with Europe, but we have no single
recognising standard with anyone in Africa," he said.

Zimbabwe's food production and distribution system, in crisis for more than
two years, is set to ease this harvest season following handouts of seed and
fertilizer. Small farmers, who have been encouraged to grow cereal crops
other than corn, are expected to have record harvests.
International donations, good rains, and the skills and determination of
small-scale communal farmers have combined to provide good news out of
Zimbabwe.

The U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning System, or Fewsnet, said in its latest
report that small farmers have grown more non-traditional cereals than in
previous years, and are going to harvest good yields.

This, the group says, will ease Zimbabwe's food crisis in some crops,
although the shortfall in corn, the preferred staple food, will remain
unchanged. Fewsnet says the planting area for sorghum has more than doubled
from last year, and is 70 percent up from the 1990s average of 146,000
hectares. The planting of non-traditional millet is also up.

A United Nations office in Zimbabwe said much of the seed and fertilizer for
these crops was given to small farmers by various donors in order to rebuild
food security and encourage production of crops that do better in many drier
areas than corn. U.N. crop experts say recent rains have improved the yield
prospects considerably.

The U.N. World Food Program has fed up to 5.5 million Zimbabweans, or nearly
half the population, since the crisis in agricultural production began four
years ago.

While commercial agriculture shows little sign of improvement, tens of
thousands of small farmers are going to have a much better season, and
donors say they hope the need for emergency food assistance will be
dramatically reduced during 2004.

      Copyright © 2004, Dow Jones Newswires

      HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)--The government stepped up pressure Wednesday on
Zimbabwean journalists working for foreign media, describing some as
mercenaries tempted by "dirty American money" to undermine their country.

      Information Minister Jonathan Moyo claimed journalists reporting for
U.S., U.K. and South African news organizations were violating the country's
currency exchange laws by holding money earned locally in foreign accounts.

      "As nobody is above the law...appropriate legal action will be taken,"
Moyo said in a statement repeated on hourly state radio news bulletins
Wednesday.

      Among the organizations cited by Moyo were The Associated Press,
Reuters and Agence France-Presse news agencies; CNN, the U.K. and South
African broadcasting corporations; and newspapers from both countries.

      Under a presidential decree issued last month, suspects can be
detained for up to a month without bail for alleged economic and political
offenses.

      President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly accused the U.S. and former
colonial ruler U.K. of plotting to overthrow his regime.

      Moyo claimed Walter Kansteiner, former U.S. assistant secretary of
state for African affairs, had started using Western media organizations in
its alleged campaign against the Zimbabwean government four years ago.

      "A number of journalists have found the promise of dirty American
money too tempting and irresistible at the expense of their own country," he
said.

      "Mercenaries of any kind, whether carrying the sword or the pen, must
and will be exposed, and they will suffer the full consequences of the law."

      The state-run Herald newspaper also accused three Zimbabwean
journalists of helping produce a BBC documentary on secret camps allegedly
set up by the government to train youths to kill, rape and torture political
opponents.

      The three journalists, including a television cameraman working for
one of BBC's main competitors, have denied any involvement in the
documentary.

      The government dismissed the BBC's allegations, saying youth centers
have trained some 20,000 volunteers in self-help, entrepreneurial and
technical skills, health and "national orientation."

      It said the training focused on what it called mental decolonization
and instilled in youths a sense of belonging to the country.

      Mugabe's government has sought to crack down on dissent since his
disputed re-election in 2002 amid reports of vote rigging and intimidation.

      Opposition leaders, trade unionists and independent journalists have
been arrested, and the country's only independent daily newspaper was shut
down last month under tough new media laws. Mugabe has also been accused of
packing the courts with sympathetic judges.

      Four foreign journalists have been deported since 2001, leaving only a
handful of Zimbabwe nationals working for foreign media. Few foreign
reporters have been granted visas to work in Zimbabwe in the past three
years.

      (END) Dow Jones Newswires

      March 10, 2004 07:38 ET (12:38 GMT)

Zimbabwe has threatened legal action against foreign media organisations and
their local correspondents -- including Mail & Guardian -- saying some of
them are "mercenaries" working to topple the regime of President Robert
Mugabe.

"Mercenaries of any kind, whether carrying the sword or the pen, must and
will be exposed, and they will suffer the full consequences of the law,"
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said in a statement released late on
Tuesday.

"Over the last four years or so ... a number of [local] journalists have
found the promise of dirty American money too tempting and irresistible, at
the expense of their own country," it said.

"Concrete evidence in this regard has been coming up in recent months and it
is mounting," the statement said.

It added that "no media organisation, certainly not Zimpapers [a state-owned
media group], will be forced to employ [United States President George]
Bush's or [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair's media mercenaries whose
mission is to destroy Zimbabwe from within. That will just not happen."

Moyo also accused some journalists and their foreign employers of "flagrant
violation of exchange control law and regulations", alleging they are
keeping foreign currency outside the country for work done in Zimbabwe.

"Some of the journalists involved are foreign correspondents who regularly
report for news organisations such as CNN, the BBC, SABC, Daily Telegraph,
The Times of London, Guardian, among many more, while others are stringers
for or regular contributors to newspapers such as Sunday Times, the Mail and
Guardian, The Star and the Business Day in South Africa. And yet others work
for wire services such as Reuters, Agence France [Presse].

"As nobody is above the law, and given the serious implications of this
widespread and continuing illegal practice on the country's economy, the
department [of information] has brought the matter to the attention of the
relevant authorities and agencies ... for appropriate legal action will be
taken," he said. -- Sapa-AFP

[ENDS]

      Copyright © 2004, Dow Jones Newswires

      HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)--The government warned Wednesday that 64
suspected mercenaries who were aboard a jet seized at the country's main
airport could face the death penalty.

      "They are going to face the severest punishment on our statutes
including capital punishment," Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said after a
routine briefing for diplomats in the capital, Harare.

      He didn't specify what charges could be brought against the men or
when they might appear in court.

      It remained unclear where the men had been going and what their
purpose had been.

      The crew of the aging Boeing 727-L100 impounded late Sunday at Harare
International Airport told authorities the plane was carrying mining
personnel headed for the central African nations of Congo and Burundi, state
television reported Tuesday.

      But Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said the plane was believed to
have been hired by South African mercenaries with the assistance of British
special forces.

      The small west African state of Equatorial Guinea said Tuesday it had
arrested an advance group of 15 alleged mercenaries believed to be plotting
a coup in the oil-rich country.

      The U.K.'s Foreign Office said Wednesday it was aware of the
allegation that British SAS forces were involved with the plane. British
officials in Harare attended Wednesday's briefing with Zimbabwe's foreign
minister, a spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. She had no further
details.

      South Africa's Foreign Ministry confirmed that 20 of its nationals
were among those arrested.

      "The South African government reiterates the view that should the
allegations that these South Africans were implicated in mercenary
activities prove true, it would amount to a breach of the Foreign Military
Assistance Act, which expressly prohibits the involvement of South Africans
in such activities abroad without due authorization," the ministry said in a
statement late Tuesday.

      Zimbabwean authorities have also indicated that there are 18
Namibians, 23 Angolans, two Congolese and one Zimbabwean carrying a South
African passport among those arrested.

      Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda said his government believed the
men once belonged to the Buffalo Battalion, a disbanded South African army
unit composed of foreign soldiers, many of them from Portuguese-speaking
countries. The unit fought in Namibia and Angola in the 1970s and 1980s.

      Angolan officials were cooperating with Harare, Miranda said on state
radio.

      Along with the plane, Zimbabwe authorities seized what they called
"military materials" -including satellite telephones, radios, backpacks,
hiking boots, bolt cutters and an inflatable raft. There were no reports of
weapons on plane.

      The plane and its passengers -described by state television as mostly
white -were initially taken to a nearby military airfield.

      The suspects were later moved to the Chikurubi maximum security prison
near Harare, according to a civil aviation official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity.

      He said the plane had landed in Harare to load additional fuel, for
which the crew paid about $30,000 in cash.

      Airport authorities became suspicious when the plane's interior lights
were extinguished after the pilot declare there were only three crew and
four cargo loaders aboard, state television reported.

      The plane's registration number, N4610, is assigned to Dodson Aviation
Inc. of Ottawa, Kansas, in the U.S. However, the company said it had sold
the aircraft about a week ago.

      Investigators in Harare said Dodson Aviation originally purchased the
plane from the U.S. Air Force.

      (END) Dow Jones Newswires

      March 10, 2004 11:48 ET (16:48 GMT)

      Pretoria - The men arrested aboard a captured plane in Zimbabwe are
all former South African Defence Force (SADF) soldiers from Unit 32, based
in Namibia, a South African diplomatic source said on Wednesday.

      The source told Sapa that the plane had indeed been transporting
mercenaries to Equatorial Guinea, and it stopped over in Zimbabwe to pick up
weapons from a military depot.

      Beeld alleges that the weapons were manufactured by Zimbabwe Defence
Industries (ZDI), which it alleges was paid $180 000 (about R1,2-million)
for the weapons.

      "So I suppose you could say there were no weapons on the plane before
it got to Zimbabwe," the source said.

            'We don't like the idea that South Africa has become a cesspool'
      Sixty-four men, including 20 South Africans, 18 Namibians, 23
Angolans, two DRC citizens and a Zimbabwean travelling on a South African
passport have been arrested and are in prison in Zimbabwe.

      The Boeing 727-100 was detained by Harare on Sunday after airport
authorities became suspicious of the pilot's reported claim that the plane
was only carrying three crew and four cargo handlers.

      South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma said on
her arrival back from India that her department was in no rush to assist the
South Africans in Zimbabwe, or another group which is under house arrest in
Equatorial Guinea.

      "They are not exactly innocent travellers finding themselves in a
difficult situation," she said.

      However foreign affairs officials would find out what extradition
treaties, if any, were in place.

      She said the department was still trying to establish what was going
on but that "indeed there was a link between the plane and Equatorial
Guinea".

      She confirmed there were at least seven South Africans who had been
arrested in Equatorial Guinea and that one had "spilled the beans".

      "I know one man has addressed the diplomatic corps and explained what
funny things they were doing up there," she said.

      Dlamini-Zuma said government was concerned that South Africans were
involved in mercenary activities.

      "We don't like the idea that South Africa has become a cesspool of
mercenaries," she said.

      Equatorial Guinea's Information Minister Agustin Nse Nfumu said on
Tuesday his government had detained 15 suspected mercenaries, and declared
they were an "advance party" for the group of 64 on board the impounded
aircraft.

      He said the leader of the group, a white South African called "Mick",
had confessed to a plot to kill the president.

      But Charles Burrow, a senior executive at Logo logistics - the plane's
owner - maintains its all a "dreadful misunderstanding".

      Burrow insists the alleged mercenaries were security guards en route
to various mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the
alleged weapons were bits of mining equipment. - Sapa

      The 15 mercenaries arrested in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea,
at the weekend - the 'advance party' of a group also including the 65
presumed "mercenaries" found on board the Boeing 727 cargo plane seized in
the Zimbabwean capital on Sunday, according to the Guinean government -
aimed to kidnap the Guinean President, Theodore Obiang Nguema, take him to
Spain and force him into exile before replacing him with the opposition
leader Severo Moto Nsa, himself in exile in Spain, Nick Dutoit told Guinean
television today. Dutoit is the man believed by the Malabo authorities to
have been in charge of the mercenary operation intended to overthrow Obiang,
who has led the country since 1968. Dutoit, white with European features,
spoke in English, and he was sitting at a table to which all the accredited
ambassadors in Equatorial Guinea were invited. A few hours earlier the
official radio in the tiny former Spanish colony - currently the third
producer of crude oil in Sub-Saharan Africa - described Dutoit as "a
48-year-old South African arms and diamonds trafficker" who has been in
Malabo since July 2003. According to the radio, the mercenaries in Guinea
were already in the possession of arms and were awaiting the arrival of the
remaining material that they needed. "The first objective was the presidency
of the republic, followed by a few military barracks, then the murder of a
few selected members of the government would have signalled the end of the
mission," said the national broadcaster of Malabo, specifying that Dutoit
had admitted recruiting around 60 mercenaries in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Yesterday, the Guinean government implicated Severo Moto, leader of
the main opposition group 'Partido del Progresso', in the affair, which is
getting more complicated by the hour. Malabo has asked Madrid to extradite
Moto, who continues to deny any involvement in the affair, instead claiming
that the presumed coup was staged on purpose to prevent his return to the
country (scheduled for the coming weeks) in view of the impending
presidential elections. Speaking on the radio yesterday, President Obiang
alleged that the "mercenaries" were financed by "enemy powers, multinational
corporations and countries that do not like Guinea".[LC]

      The government of Zimbabwe has accused the secret services of the
United States, Great Britain and Spain of assisting the presumed mercenaries
detained in Harare in organising a plot aimed at overthrowing the President
of Equatorial Guinea, Theodor Obiang Nguema. During a press conference, the
Zimbabwean interior minister Kembo Mohadi read out a prepared statement
claiming that the presumed "mercenaries" were "aided by the British secret
service, that is MI6, .... American Central Intelligence Agency and the
Spanish secret service". According to Mohadi, the western secret services
persuaded "Equatorial Guinea's service chiefs not to put up any resistance,
but to cooperate with the coup plotters", promising them government posts in
the post-coup administration. The reconstruction provided by the minister is
based on information obtained from Simon Mann, who was arrested in Harare
last Sunday while waiting for the Boeing 727, which was blocked and
impounded in the international airport in the Zimbabwean capital together
with its cargo of "military material" and 65 presumed mercenaries of
different nationalities. Mann, a former member of the British Special Air
Service (SAS), is thought to be one of the managers of Executive Outcomes
(EO), the most important mercenary company in the world, although it has
been inactive for some time, and one of the founders of Sandline
International, the Private Military Company that grew out of the ashes of
EO.[LC]

Malabo - The leader of a group of suspected mercenaries arrested in
Equatorial Guinea said on national television on Wednesday that their
mission was to abduct President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and force him into
exile.

"It wasn't 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
installing the government in exile of Severo Moto Nsa," said the man,
presented under the name of Nick du Toit.

Obiang, who came to power in the small, oil-rich West African nation in a
1979 coup, on Tuesday announced the arrest of a group of 15 mercenaries he
said wanted to overthrow his regime.

"A group of mercenaries entered the country and was studying plans to carry
out a coup d'etat in Equatorial Guinea," he said, quoted by national radio.

The 15 were found to be in possession of maps of the capital, Malabo, and
satellite telephones, Obiang said, adding they were linked to the planeload
of suspected mercenaries who have been detained since the weekend in
Zimbabwe.

Obiang pointed the finger at Moto, the leader of the country's government in
exile, who is based in former colonial power Spain. But Moto on Wednesday
denied any involvement in the alleged plot.

The man, who appeared on national television looked European and was talking
in English with his words dubbed into Spanish. He faced the camera and did
not appear to be frightened or tired.

Earlier national radio had identified the leader of the mercenaries as a
48-year-old South African, Nick du Toit. - Sapa-AFP

Pretoria - Niel Steyl, the pilot of the Boeing 727-100 that was impounded in
Zimbabwe, used to be a commercial pilot in Bethlehem, Free State.

Another pilot on board was Hendrik Hamman, a farmer from Namibia.

Both apparently flew similar Boeings for the now-defunct Executive Outcomes
company that provided military assistance in Angola and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo during the civil wars in those countries.

Steyl apparently hit the headlines two years ago when he was one of the two
captains of a Boeing 727 that took the enigmatic and controversial King Leka
I, self-proclaimed ruler of Albania, back to his homeland after years in
exile in South Africa.

The crew and the 64 others on board the controversial flight were arrested
in Harare on Sunday evening.

Sources indicate that they could be held under Zimbabwe' Public Order and
Security Act for at least seven days while the Zimbabwean authorities
question them under orders from the South African government.

They might then be extradited to South Africa.

Six people - J L Padilla, W L Stanton, M O Bainton, K D Savage, M P Sistok
and a McQuade apparently flew the plane from Sao Tome to Lanseria Airport at
the weekend.

A Mr Pienaar paid for fuel by credit card before the plane left for
Wonderboom Airport from where it travelled to Harare via Polokwane.

It is unclear where the crew who were arrested in Harare took over the
plane.

The 64 others on the plane had stayed in a prominent hotel in Pretoria for
the past week or so. They apparently underwent marksmanship training near
Johannesburg during this time.

Eighty percent of them are apparently from former specialist forces and some
are of Angolan descent.

Severo Moto, ousted opposition leader of Equatorial Guinea, has tried to
overthrow the government there twice before. Both coups failed.

President Thabo Mbeki recently visited Equatorial Guinea to renew diplomatic
ties between the two countries.

Equatorial Guinea also recently opened an embassy in South Africa.

            'SA president tipped us off'
            10/03/2004 14:09  - (SA)

            Malabo - Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has
thanked South Africa and Angola for being "friendly" countries and tipping
him off to the impending arrival of a flight carrying susepcted mercenaries.

            "We spoke with the South African president who warned us that a
group of mercenaries was heading towards Equatorial Guinea... Angola also
sent messages to tell us to be vigilant. That's what I expect of friendly
countries," said Obiang, calling on former colonial power Spain to behave
likewise.

            Meanwhile, the planeload of alleged soldiers of fortune detained
in Zimbabwe has been linked to a group of 15 suspected mercenaries arrested
in Equatorial Guinea as they allegedly hatched a coup plot last weekend,
national radio quoted Obiang saying.

            "A group of mercenaries entered the country and was studying
plans to carry out a coup d'état in Equatorial Guinea," said Obiang late on
Tuesday, announcing the 15 coup plotters had been arrested.

            They were found to be in possession of maps of the capital
Malabo, and satellite telephones, Obiang said, adding they were linked to
the planeload of suspected mercenaries who have been detained since the
weekend in Zimbabwe.

            The authorities in Harare at the weekend impounded a
US-registered Boeing 727-100 with 64 passengers and three crew on board.

            Although Harare claims those on board the impounded plane are
mercenaries, and is holding them in prison, a British company that said it
was operating the flight maintained that those on board were on their way to
work in the mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

            Obiang said the suspected putschists "were funded by enemy
powers, by multi-national companies and also by countries that do not like
us," but did not name names.

            He pointed the finger at opposition activist Severo Moto, who is
in exile in Spain, and who tried to mount a coup against Obiang in 1997 from
Angola.

            Moto, who recently set up a government in exile for the tiny,
oil-rich Gulf of Guinea country, was sentenced in absentia by a court in
Malabo to 100 years in jail for his role in the 1997 coup bid, and his Party
for Progress in Equatorial Guinea was banned.

            The long-time president of Equatorial Guinea himself came to
power in a coup in 1979, in which he ousted his uncle, whom he later had
executed.