| "Guns for hire again" [boodskap #55353] |
Vr, 11 Januarie 2002 18:21 |
david
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"Guns for hire again"
A born-again Executive Outcomes operation is at the centre of
allegations of a military contract between ex-South African Defence
Force soldiers and the Sudanese army. A former director of EO told
Africa Confidential that the contract was widely known in 'military
circles' in South Africa and involved training Sudanese special forces
officers in counter-insurgency operations to guard the oil fields. He
described the firm involved as 'the rump' of EO. 'Those of us in the
company who made enough money are out of it, those who didn't are still
in the game,' he added. EO was formally wound up in December 1998.
We hear South African security has established a link between a local
company known as NFD and the Sudan contract. Military sources say this
was signed this March after six months of negotiation with the Khartoum
government. It's modeled on similar work undertaken for Libyan state
security in late 1999, which recommended the South African company to
Khartoum. The Libyan project involved using helicopters with infra-red
cameras on 'search and destroy' operations. Some equipment used in the
contract was obtained from Kentron, a subsidiary of South Africa's Denel
defence company. Other elements in the contract included training in
infiltrating rebel bases and intelligence gathering. Some 20 former SA
soldiers are involved.
NFD's directors include Duncan Rykaart (ex- colonel in the SA Defence
Force's Five Recce Brigade), Frederik Christoffel Grove (ex-deputy
commander of SA's paratroopers) and Nick van den Berg, described as a
sleeping partner. All worked at senior level in EO; NFD has bought EO's
former premises at 13 Gouws Avenue, Raslouw, north of Johannesburg.
NFD Operations Manager Rykaart denies any knowledge of the Sudan
contract, though SA military sources pinpoint him as taking the lead
role in the negotiations with Khartoum. 'Someone has been masquerading,
misusing our company name to get work,' Rykaart told Africa
Confidential. 'This happened a lot with Executive Outcomes in the old
days'. Rykaart insists his company has no foreign security contracts
currently, although the NFD website boasts a client base in Egypt,
Congo-Brazzaville, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Angola and Bulgaria.
All South African security companies working overseas have to register
and meet the terms of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act,
which was passed after controversy about EO's Angolan contracts. Another
EO ex-Director claimed the Act's provisions were so broad that most
operators couldn't be prosecuted.
Revelations that a South African company is training Sudanese soldiers
will embarrass Pretoria's Department of Foreign Affairs. When SA's
Soecor wanted to bid for contracts in Sudan's oil sector, they were
stopped by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma, who feared compromising
Pretoria's role in any peace negotiations between the Sudanese regime
and its opponents.
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