SA soldiers may be prosecuted

2004-03-01 21:23

Pretoria - South Africans offering security services in Iraq could be prosecuted in terms of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act (RFMAA), officials said on Monday.

The Ministry of Defence said a statement at the weekend prohibiting South Africans from offering security or military services to any faction in Iraq without the permission of Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota merely clarified an existing situation.

Spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said the act, adopted by parliament in 1998, has been in operation for some years already.

South African courts traditionally did not allow ignorance of the law as an excuse.

It was also not known how many South African citizens or residents were providing services in that country.

Media reports have speculated that "hundreds" of former soldiers and policeman have applied for lucrative jobs there, mostly as bodyguards or security personnel.

Three-month contracts

Most of the contracts were of three month's duration, with the option to extend them, and salaries of between R35 000 and R100 000 a month was being offered.

Lekota's office at the weekend said the National Conventional Arms Control Committee had decided that Iraq was a "theatre of armed conflict" under the RFMAA.

Pitted against each other were a US-led international coalition, including the Iraqi Provisional Authority, and "armed forces or groupings opposed to the Iraqi Provisional Authority as well as the presence of the coalition forces in Iraq.

"In terms of the Act the rendering of military assistance to a party to an armed conflict includes providing advice, training, personnel, financial, logistical, intelligence or operational support, personnel recruitment, medical or para-medical services or procurement of equipment."

Military assistance also included "the provision of security services for the protection of individuals involved in an armed conflict or their property or any other action that resulted in furthering the military interests of a party to an armed conflict".

Imprisonment, fines

South Africans in, or headed for, Iraq to work as security or body guards could therefore face imprisonment or fines or both on their return.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said South Africa had for the past 10 years tried to be part of the solution to conflict situations.

People offering services of the type regulated by the FMAA without permission tended to be part of problem and undermined the country's efforts to seek peaceful resolutions.

The NPA was keen to take action against those who undermined South Africa's role in the international community as mercenaries.

He said the NPA had a close working relationship with police's crimes against the state unit that investigated mercenary cases and also controlled the Scorpions.

- SAPA