Reports in The Star
(February 4) that more than 1 500 South Africans are believed to be in
Iraq under contract to various private military companies, have
heightened calls for the government to give substance to the Regulation
of Foreign Military Assistance Bill.
The bill was passed in May 1998.
The South Africans are purportedly in Iraq to fill the void left by departing American and British forces.
It is not the first time that South Africans have been involved in a
foreign conflict in which our country officially had no part. Some of
the military officers who toppled the democratically-elected government
of S‹o Tomé and Principe last year received military from South
Africa's notorious 32 Battalion in Namibia in the late 1980s.
According to the British Foreign Office, there are also more than 350
South Africans currently serving in the British armed forces - many of
whom were involved in the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, which our
government opposed.
The 32 Battalion has spawned some of South Africa's most infamous
mercenaries and, arguably, its most active private military company,
Executive Outcomes (EO), which has been active in conflicts throughout
Africa, including Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Angola, and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
All this has been since the passing of the Act five years ago.
Many analysts believe that EO most recently aided Khartoum in its war
efforts in southern Sudan. According to a report in Africa
Confidential, the company also concluded a contract with Libya,
involving the use of helicopters and infra-red technology - Libya
reportedly recommended EO's services to the Khartoum regime.
A former director of EO told Africa Confidential that
"a military contract" between former SA Defence Force soldiers and the
Sudanese army was widely known in "military circles ... and involved
training Sudanese special forces officers in counter-insurgency
operations to guard the oil fields".
The Star's Beauregard Tromp quotes a United Nations report
indicating that South Africa is already among the top three suppliers
of personnel for private military companies, along with Britain and the
US.
The government needs aggressively to investigate whether South Africans
are involved in conflicts that contribute to the suffering and
oppression of countless people.
