OT: (probably) Re: Soldiers of Fortune
They said they had also arrested a man identified as Simon Mann, a former member of the Britain's Special Air Service elite forces, and two other men who were at the airport to meet the plane when it landed in Harare on Sunday.
It appears that Simon Mann was also with (supposedly now-defunct Executive Outcomes...
Executive Outcomes
Background Report
Executive Outcomes is one of a number of 'private security' organisations offering its services to third world countries, particularly those in Africa. Most of the countries which use its services are desperately poor but have significant mineral and oil resources. Therefore EO appears to be paid through concession deals offered to associated companies, which then foot EO's bill.
In general EO's operations seem to reflect British and/or South African foreign policy in the area. This, together with the 'ground intelligence' provided by EO to South African and British intelligence (and Australia, Canada, US and New Zealand under the UKUSA arrangement) probably explains why the organisation has survived and prospered.
...Some Key Personnel...
Simon Mann
Computer software expert
Aged 46
Computer Consultant.
Special forces background.
Mann probably helps co-ordinate the massive computing and communications resources needed by the organisation.
Mann was a director of UK companies QDQ Systems Ltd and its holding company Meridian Technology Ltd until November 1986. He was also a director of UK companies Data Integrity plc and Data Integrity (Holdings) Ltd until 1989. These companies provided secure software to financial institutions.
Between April 1990 and October 1993 Man was director and shareholder of a UK company called Highland Software Ltd. A Lloyds broker, Johnathan Hart, was also a director. Significantly, one address for the company was on the 2nd Floor of 22 South Audley Street, London. Sir David Stirling, the former SAS commander and pioneer of the concept of private armies, based his company, KAS on the first floor.
See also:
journ.upng.ac.pg
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The facts behind PNG's new 'dogs of war'
VIEWPOINT: Khareen Pech and David Beresford: 7 March 1997
EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES, the mercenary company hired by the Papua New Guinea Government, has fought many gun battles in Africa.
Today the controversial company, having brought new meaning to the concept of the "corporate state" by mustering what is arguably the world's first corporate army, is again at war, only this one is of words, fought in the arena of public opinion.
It is six years since EO emerged as a mercenary force to be reckoned with in Africa.
Even now, as Zaire threatens to implode, there is speculation that their mercenaries are moving in to shore up the crumbling rule of President Mobutu.
There is no doubt that EO's dogs of war are "feared" by some. But for others the name has come to mean security and stability - a private Pan-African peace-keeping force of a kind which the international community has long promised, but failed to deliver.
And therein lies the puzzle of this army without a country. Does it represent the privatisation of peace-keeping? Or the privatisation of war?
Is it a means of bandaging Africa's - and now PNG's - wounds and exploiting its massive mineral resources for Africa's own benefit? Or is it a latter day version of 18th century adventurism, ruthless privateers with murder in their blood, ripping off a continent's wealth?
The origins of EO are shrouded in some mystery, not surprising when one considers the circumstances of its creation and those involved.
A UK Eyes Alpha ("top secret") British intelligence report records that "Executive Outcomes was registered in the UK on September 1993 by Anthony Buckingham, a British businessman and Simon Mann, a former British officer".
Buckingham, a veteran of the Special Air Service (SAS), a close friend and business associate of former Liberal Party leader Sir David Steel, is chief executive of the oil firm, Heritage Oil and Gas, which has drilling interests in Angola and elsewhere. Heritage was also linked with Ranger Oil, a Canadian corporation.
Mann, a former troop commander in the SAS, has served in a dozen countries, from Cyprus to Central America, Saudi Arabia to Nigeria.
In January 1993, Buckingham and Mann met and commissioned Eeben Barlow, a veteran of the Angolan war and former officer of the South African Defence Force, to recruit a force of South African veterans to capture Soyo, one of the centres of the oil industry, which was in the hands of Unita.
A small force of less than 100 men succeeded, though Unita recaptured Soyo when the South Africans left. Luanda then requested a larger mercenary force, offering oil concessions in return.
According to the British intelligence document, "Ranger allocated $30 million for the operation and placed the contract with Buckingham and Mann." They in turn appointed Barlow and Lafras Luitingh - a former colleague of Barlow - as commanders-in-chief of the force. The two recruited 500 men, most of them from the old South African Defence Force. And effectively turned the course of the war.
From Angola, they moved on to Sierra Leone, shoring up the regime of Valentine Strasser against the Revolutionary United Front of Foday Sankoh.
They are now reported to be in Kenya, where they have gone into partnership with Raymond Moi, a son of President Daniel Arap Moi. They are said to have provided protection for Canadian oil interests in the Sudan, gold and oil prospecting operations in Uganda and are rumoured to have a training contract with the Government. They have been accused of supplying arms to Burundi. It has been reported that EO has links with more than 30 countries, mostly in Africa.
Africa has long experience with mercenary armies, but EO soldiers are not just "guns for hire". They are the advance guard for major business interests in a latter-day scramble for the mineral wealth of Africa.
On the second floor of Plaza 107, a modern building in King's Road, London, a single receptionist handles incoming calls to more than 18 companies. There are no name-plates, but from the plush offices - access to which is closely monitored by closed-circuit cameras - Buckingham, Mann and others run businesses which include international oil, gold and diamond mining ventures, a chartered accountancy practice, an airline and foreign security services.
© 1997 Weekly Mail and Guardian.
Copyright © 1997 Uni Tavur and Journalism UPNG
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