Alleged mercenaries hit with 6th charge

author/source:AFP
published:Sun 21-Mar-2004
posted on this site:Sun 21-Mar-2004

Article Type : News

The charge sheet filed against each of the detainees on Saturday reads in part "from June 2003 and 7 March 2004 in the Republic of South Africa, I conspired and agreed with 69 others to oust the president of Equatorial Guinea ... from power in a coup d'etat"

Zimbabwean police on Saturday slapped a sixth charge of "conspiring to commit international terrorism" on some 70 suspected mercenaries linked to an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, their lawyer said. Defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said the police were charging the men with "contravening UN (United Nations) resolution 1373 (2001) and UN resolution 1456 (2003)". The move came as the country's acting attorney general Bharat Patel told the government-run news agency ZIANA that the state wanted the men to be tried in a top security Harare prison, which is being vehemently opposed by the defence. "We have no problems with members of the public and press attending, except we want the hearing to take place in prison," ZIANA quoted Patel as saying. The charge sheet filed against each of the detainees on Saturday reads in part "from June 2003 and 7 March 2004 in the Republic of South Africa, I conspired and agreed with 69 others to oust the president of Equatorial Guinea ... from power in a coup d'etat." Samkange has said the 70 cannot be charged with international terrorism because it falls outside the scope of Zimbabwean laws.
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8895

19/03/2004 22:49 - (SA)

Dakar - Amnesty International expressed concern on Friday for 14 accused foreign mercenaries held for an alleged foiled coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, saying at least one of the men may have been tortured to death.

The London-based rights group also expressed alarm for a leading opposition activist held at the same prison as 14 accused of being mercenaries, and believed to have been severely tortured.

Equatorial Guinea, a newly oil-rich nation accused of chronic rights abuses under 25-year ruler Teodoro Obiang, has held the 14 men since their March 9 arrest in an alleged coup plot.

Zimbabwe, in southern Africa, had arrested 64 other alleged mercenaries two days earlier, stopping what authorities claimed was their trip to Equatorial Guinea to aid the overthrow of Obiang
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1501040,00.html

prisoners die of a heart attack ?

companies, some mercenaries are field-testing new types of weapons and gear, some mercenaries employ slavers and drug lords too.
Kellog, Brown & Root Services, other parts of Halliburton, Dyn Corp., Wackenhut, etc. are PMC's/Private Military Companies

They all are operating world-wide, the federalized ones as part of Homeland Security.

Ever notice the armed folks at your local Social Security office? Some of them were in Africa.

Private military companies have to be registered with the U.S. government and must apply for a license with the U.S State Department in order to export their services abroad, under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) Law. However, as the ICIJ report points out, PMCs can sell their services abroad through the Defense Department's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, under which the Pentagon pays the contractor for services offered to a foreign government. Companies often use FMS in order to avoid the lengthy ITAR licensing process.
http://www.corp-research.org/dec02.htm

Are you saying there are armed mercenaries at the ss offices. Why? What company in Africa? I have to go check that out.

Security Companies Doing Business in Iraq
The U.S. government assumes no responsibility for the professional ability or integrity of the persons or firms whose names appear on the list.
http://travel.state.gov/iraq_securitycompanies.html

"As always, should you or any of your I. M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim."

The growth of private military and police capability is staggering, especially in eastern Europe, wealthy Middle Eastern states, and threatened African states. U.S. intelligence in late 1993 estimated that some 20,000 foreigners were fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Military Professional Resources, Incorporated (MPRI) is an American firm which claims that it contains "the greatest corporate assemblage of military expertise in the world" (it employs 17 retired U.S. generals full-time). MPRI has 182 former U.S. Special Forces personnel training and equipping the Bosnia Federation’s military force (the U.S. Government has supplied over $100 million in surplus equipment to assist MPRI’s success). A wide range of private British and U.S. firms operate in the Middle East. About 1,000 ex-U.S. military now work for the Vinnell Corporation in training the 65,000-man Saudi National Guard. Executive Outcomes is a private company that British intelligence termed "with the possible exception of the South African army, the most deadly and efficient army operating in sub-Saharan Africa." Executive Outcomes (EO) fielded about 600 combat soldiers in Angola and 300 men in Sierra Leone to help defeat insurgencies—something the government forces could not accomplish by themselves. EO’s air capabilities, including MI-8, -17 and -24 helicopters and MiG-23 fighters, supported these soldiers. U.S. State Department sources claim that over 80 private security companies operate in Angola alone; five years ago there were six.
<snip>
Because the role of private security companies is clearly growing, governments and international organizations should seek ways to regulate, rather than eliminate, them.
Most security companies operate from Western nations where media and government provide some control over their activities. American companies, for example, need governmental approval—the terms of which are stipulated by the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Administration Act. An inquiring media can also serve as a check. Some supporters of these companies will argue that the personnel for these companies come from first-world, highly professional militaries
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/SF140/forum140.html

Pretoria - The wife of one of the men being held in Equatorial Guinea believes her husband's faith will carry him through and that God will watch over him.

Belinda du Toit, wife of Nick du Toit, the alleged leader of the so-called South African mercenaries who were arrested in the tiny West African country 12 days ago, told Beeld in an exclusive interview she often wondered if her husband would ever return home again.

"But then again, he always said nothing comes across one's path without a reason. His faith will carry him through, and the Lord will watch over him even if nobody else believes in him right now."
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1501004...

There, according to a South African intelligence agent, the men – many former members of South Africa’s defunct mercenary company Executive Outcomes (EO) – were to rendezvous at the camp with other former EO operatives and rebel fighters who had been training for six months to overthrow the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Sometime this week, if all had gone to plan, the soldiers of fortune hoped to have ousted the president, installed Spanish-based opposition leader Severo Moto Nsa, and walked off with their booty.
But, as befitting the double dealing of the plots in Frederick Forsyth’s and Daniel Carney’s thrillers, things did not quite work out as intended.
http://www.sundayherald.com/40531

Mokhine said Amnesty International officials in London were meeting to decide on urgent action, which included making representations to the United Nations and European Union.
"Because of reports of torture, harsh detention facilities and human rights violations in Equatorial Guinea, we fear for the lives of the suspected mercenaries."
He added that Amnesty International was "pleasantly surprised" at how the 70 suspected coup plotters had been treated in Zimbabwe and that there had been no reports of torture.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=139&art_id=vn20040319052119374...

A lawyer representing the group has met his clients and said they have not complained about their treatment.
"They have not been ill-treated, they are happy and were even saying they are being given too much food in jail," Jonathan Samkange was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3504896.stm

Just wait.
They have already called the the target of the coup "a gonad-eating cannibal."
Next they will claim that the mercenaries are recieving good care and good food only so that they can wind up in a pot.

The Ghost of Adolph Hitler: Nazi Influence in America
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/STA310A.html

go do dirty deeds and if you pray hard enough, God will get you out...

these TRAINED AND HIGHLY EXPERIENCED MERCENARIES were on their way to TORTURE AND KILL other human beings. Quite frankly, they deserve a dose of their own medicine.

Furthermore, the Geneva Conventions and just about every single other piece of international law I can think of, says that a mercenary who is in the process of attacking is fair game in hunting season.
Licence to be killed.

If you go look up the stuff that Executive Outcomes, Sandline and DynCorp have been doing with YOUR MONEY and IN YOUR NAME, then I think that you, as a human being, would consider the demise of this entire group of cut-throats as a case of good riddance.

1980
In "Operation Winter," with the collusion of British government monitors in Rhodesia, Rhodesian special operations assets are reportedly transferred covertly to South Africa. These assets supposedly include the Rhodesian SAS, the CIO and its agents, and the Selous Scouts, as well as black "mercenaries" and "the poisoners and their poisons," all of which are incorporated into the appropriate South African departments. British and American planes may have taken part in the transfer of men and equipment.
—Jeremy Brickhill, "Zimbabwe's Poisoned Legacy: Secret War in Southern Africa," Covert Action Quarterly 43 (Winter 1992-93), pp. 58-60.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/SAfrica/Chemical/2446.html

Two mercenaries stood out. In Zimbabwe, the plane had been met by Simon Mann, a British expatriate and onetime aide to senior British military leaders. Mr. Mann is a flamboyant soldier of fortune, a figure in books and even a cameo actor in a war movie. In the 1990's, two companies tied to him, Executive Outcomes and Sandline International, reclaimed Angolan oil fields and diamond mines from rebel armies and imposed peace in war-racked Sierra Leone in the absence of a United Nations force.
In Equatorial Guinea, the crucial plotter was identified as Nick du Toit, a South African special forces veteran who once worked for Executive Outcomes. This time, Mr. du Toit worked for Mr. Mann in a company called Logo Logistics. An official in that company, who goes by two names, has told reporters that it bought the Boeing 727 in Kansas this year as part of an innocent contract to protect gold miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo — not to overthrow a government.
Whatever the truth, Mr. du Toit appeared on state-controlled television in Malabo last week to make a dramatic, seemingly case-closing confession. The entire plot, he said, was hatched by Severo Moto, an Equatorial Guinean opposition figure and longtime fomenter of quashed coups who lives in exile in Madrid. Mr. Moto's coup was said to be financed by $5 million from a British businessman, washed through a front company in Lebanon.
"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," said Mr. du Toit, who has not been seen since.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/international/africa/20GUIN.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5062&en=7d043f3309034b60&ex=1080363600&partner=GOOGLE

Just look what the Steele Foundation has done to Haiti.
Just look at the unrest these dogs of war have brought into Venezuela.
The world must be very peaceful for Amnesty International to have come out to bat for this lot of mangy beasts.

Thanks for links provided.

Can't be sure, but you seem to think you know what I think, so feel like telling you what I think. Haven't followed EQ at all.
Haven't followed AI recently either, but expect reports from AI and several other human rights NGO generally principled. Think a foreign policy based on HR would be morally sound, good for US (on principle real friends cheaper and more useful than bought thugs, terrorized allies, or enemies), good for local populations (democracy, business, trade unions), etc.

Consider as general principle that means and ends are often inseparable. Believe you suggest ethical judgments must flow from actual facts: agreed. No sympathy whatsoever for mercenaries but hard-pressed to imagine any circumstance where torture acceptable. If nothing else, HR violations always poison political process.

didn't mean to go off on you.
Genocide is something that always gets my blood boiling and I happen to be one of those who did not lament the demise of Jeffrey Dahmer or Father Geoghan among others.
But then again, I am also one who believes that the cook should also eat what he has prepared.

Political movements and families are dynamic processes: the stew is the interaction. Feel free to chew me out anytime. I'm not thin-skinned.

Excellent links BTW :thumbsup:

That other nations would not see it in their national interests to do the same?