'Hired guns' at foreign mercy

2004-03-11 14:17

Pretoria - South Africans arrested as suspected mercenaries in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea will have to stand trial and serve any prison sentences in those countries, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

South Africans are being detained in both countries on suspicion of being involved in a plot to topple Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

"We have no prisoner transfer agreement with any country," said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.

"As all South Africans arrested in foreign countries, they would have to face the laws of those countries should it turn out that they were mercenaries," he said.

"We do however offer consular services. But bringing them back would be out of the question."

South Africa passed a law in 1998, which specifically forbids any mercenary activity and carries heavy penalties.

Zimbabwe detained a Boeing 727-100 with 64 suspected mercenaries aboard plus three men who came to meet them at Harare International Airport on Sunday after it arrived from South Africa.

Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge saying that the men, mostly from South Africa, Namibia and Angola "are going to face the severest punishment available in our statutes, including capital punishment".

In Malabo, in Equatorial Guinea, the leader of a group of 15 suspected guns for hire appeared on national television admitting the group planned to kidnap Obiang and force him into exile in Spain.

A newspaper quoted Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as saying that Pretoria was investigating the matter, but adding it was "clear however, that any South African nationals should not expect too much assistance from the government".

"One of the South Africans apparently told the diplomatic corps in Equatorial Guinea what nonsense he committed there. He will have to explain that himself," the paper quoted her as saying.

That man, identified as 48-year-old Nick du Toit, a South African, said the group was supposed to meet other mercenaries due to arrive from South Africa, but that they were told at the last minute the group had been arrested.

Equatorial Guinean Deputy Foreign Minister Jose Esono Micha met Dlamini-Zuma in Pretoria on Thursday to discuss developments in his tiny west African country, Mamoepa said.

- AFP