Rebels holding NZ 'mercenary'

2005-03-14 21:49

Abidjan - Rebels said on Monday they're questioning a New Zealand man detained on allegations of being a mercenary hired by Ivory Coast's government. The Red Cross said it would soon visit the detainee.

Rebel spokesperson Amadou Kone said insurgents detained Brian Sands, 36, on Friday when he was found in rebel areas with body armor, satellite navigation equipment and phone numbers of government loyalist politicians and international mercenary companies.

"We're questioning him and he has offered us his intelligence services. So that makes him a mercenary," said Kone by phone from the northern rebel stronghold of Bouake, where Sands is being held at a prison. New Zealand confirmed one of its citizens was being detained.

Kone said Sands is suspected of working undercover for Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, because Sands's New Zealand passport didn't contain any government-issue entry stamps.

The government denied the charge.

"We don't use mercenaries," Ivory Coast defence minister Rene Amani told The Associated Press. "We don't have New Zealanders in the army."

Red Cross

Ivory Coast's 2002-2003 civil war has left the west African nation split between northern rebel-held areas and a government-controlled south, although traffic moves between the zones.

Kone said rebels had notified the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations mission in Ivory Coast of Sands's detention.

The head of the Red Cross in Abidjan, Kim Gordon Bates, said they had received word of Sands's detention from rebels and that officials would visit the detainee soon.

"We're going to see his conditions of detention and if he can communicate with his family. Those two things are essential," Bates said.

In New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark said foreign ministry officials were working through Britain's foreign and commonwealth office to secure the man's release. New Zealand has no consular representation in Ivory Coast.

Valid passport

"I'm told the person involved does have a valid New Zealand passport," Clark said without naming the man.

"The rebels might execute the person as a government spy," said Clark.

Asked if rebels intend to kill Sands, Kone, the spokesperson, laughed and said: "No. We've already contacted the Red Cross, who will come to take a look at him."

New Zealand foreign minister Phil Goff said officials had spoken to the man's family, and there were indications he may have mental health problems. Some of the information he told the rebels may have been invented, Goff said.

"Our goal would be to persuade his captors that this ... man does not constitute a threat and to try to secure his release," Goff told New Zealand's TV One's Close Up programme.

Ivory Coast tumbled into civil war after a failed September 2002 coup attempt against Gbagbo sparked wider fighting.

- AP