Apartheid fighters flood Iraq
2004-03-03 13:34
Johannesburg - Francois Strydom learnt about killing in the Koevoet, the apartheid-era paramilitary police unit, notorious for violence, torture and murder.
In Iraq, Strydom found his skills were in demand.
Employed by US-based firm SAS International, Strydom was one of a number of South Africans in Iraq working as private "security experts" before a January 28 bomb outside the Shaheen Hotel prematurely terminated his contract.
The aftermath of the blast sent shockwaves through the media, as Strydom's death revealed an embarrassing situation. It was estimated that 1 500 former soldiers and policemen were operating in Iraq, in defiance of stringent legislation forbidding the practice.
It emerged that the men make up along with US and British personnel the largest contingent of commercial "military service providers" on the ground in Iraq.
Most are said to be members of former elite units, disbanded following the end of apartheid, their members suddenly finding themselves unemployed, their skills no longer required.
The US-led conflict in Iraq, however, has given a boost to the jobs market.
Many such men don't regard the training of Iraqi police as "mercenary" work per se. Officials however, beg to differ, as such activity is clearly outlawed by the 1998 regulation of foreign military assistance act.
"Any form of service in an area of conflict such as Iraq is illegal unless authorised by the national conventional arms control committee," said Kader Asmal, who chairs the committee.
"This is to deal with mercenary and other 'civilian' services such as bodyguard activities, training of policemen or the supply of material," Asmal added, in a letter to The Star newspaper.
A recent statement from the office of Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota also warned against offering "private security" services of any kind in Iraq without the express authorisation of the minister.
Serving defence forces troops and police officers have also reportedly been warned against taking "career breaks" in order to conduct remunerative work in Iraq, under threat of penalties.
Strydom's death and the ensuing furore has shone a spotlight onto an industry that nowadays quietly prospers below the radar of the general public. The business of the industry is war, or as they might prefer to put it, "military security".
Even to speak of such firms as "mercenary-companies" is to court harsh criticism from industry figures, who try to distance themselves from the image of the typical soldier-of-fortune rampaging through an African war zone - an image they say is outdated.
"What the South African authorities are up against is not merely a few military adventurers," claimed journalist and defence expert Michael Schmidt in the newspaper This Day, "but the 21st century equivalent of the troops employed by the Dutch East India Company: private armies of very wealthy companies with global reach". - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA