Mercenary threat thrashed out

2004-08-05 22:26

Pretoria - The mercenary threat posed by retired and demobilised defence and security personnel in Africa will be discussed at a summit of the Southern African Development Community this month.

"What this is, is trying to look at the whole question of mercenaries in a broader context," deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad says.

"Many countries have people who have been retired or demobilised. If they do not find a proper direction for them, that causes problems."

The discussions at the SADC summit will precede a regional conference on demobilisation, disarmament, re-integration, conversion and development of such forces in Maputo later this year.

"This is the first time that the SADC is trying to see how, as a collective, we can deal with these demobilised defence and security personnel."

Dozens of suspected South African mercenaries are currently being held in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea.

Also likely to be discussed was the harmonisation of different countries' mercenary laws to try and deal with the problem, Pahad said.

- SAPA