The seven-year prison sentence passed in a court in Zimbabwe on Simon Mann, the leader of a failed coup attempt against the regime of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, highlights the role of mercenaries in the affairs of this oil rich state.
Mann is a former SAS officer, who on leaving the army moved into the security and mercenary business. He set up Executive Outcomes in the
and Sandline International in 1995, which were involved in mercenary activities in Africa.
Prosecutors said Equatorial Guinea's Spanish based opposition leader, Severo Moto offered Mann and his fellow mercenaries $1.8m and oil rights to overthrow President Nguema, who himself seized power in a coup in 1979.
Mann, who had flown into Harare with 65 suspected mercenaries in March this year on a Boeing 727-100 from South Africa, admitted trying
order assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from Zimbabwe Defence Industries.
The 65 suspected mercenaries arrested with Mann were each sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for violating immigration laws.
Fourteen other suspected mercenaries, including South African businessman Nick DuToit who has admitted to giving logistical support to the coup attempt, are on trial in Equatorial Guinea and face the death penalty if convicted. The fifteenth member of the group, a German, died in prison after what Amnesty International said Was Sus. pected torture.
As a large exporter of oil, Equatorial Guinea has acquired strategic importance. There have been frequent attempted coups "The US can be supportive in trying to ameliorate regional crises without necessarily having to put US troops on the ground, which is often a very difficult political decision. Sometimes we may not want to be very visible"
Sir Mark Thatcher, Lady Thatcher's son, was arrested in Cape Town in August over accusations that he helped finance the attempted coup. His business partner, former crack mercenary pilot Crause Steyl, is believed to have handed over to the South African police details of Thatcher's investment in an aviation firm that had contracts with his friend and neighbour, Simon Mann. It was Steyl who arranged the leasing from US Dodson Aviation of the Boeing involved in the flight of Mann and the 65 suspected mercenaries to Harare. Ten years after the discovery of vast quantities of oil and gas in its waters by ExxonMobil, tiny Equatorial Guinea now produces 440,000 barrels of oil daily, almost half the yield of Nigeria.
Within five years it will probably become Africa's second biggest producer and one of the US's largest providers. According to the IMF, its income from oil and gas is about $1bn a year based on 1992 oil prices and output. It is more likely that its income from oil is far higher.
As a large exporter of oil, Equatorial Guinea has acquired strategic impor tance. There have been frequent attempted coups to bring down the corrupt and autocratic regime of President Obiang.
In view of the growing oil interests of the US in the Gulf of Guinea it comes as no surprise that it has plans to turn the neighbouring isle of Sao Tome, where large quantities of oil have also been discovered, into a regional base to protect those interests.
Given the history and connections of Simon Mann and some of his alleged fellow conspirators, the question arises as to whether there were others involved in the plot against the regime of President Obiang
Links have been discovered between a senior American military official and a British businessman, Greg Wales, who the government of Equatorial Guinea claims was involved in the coup attempt.
According to this claim, when the plot was in its early stages in November last year, Simon Mann paid Wales $8000. A few days after the alleged payment Wales went to Washington to a conference organised by an influential group of US "private military companies", the IPOA
Peace Operations Association).
There he met Theresa Whelan, a member of the Bush administration in charge of Afriean affairs at the Pentagon. He had a further meeting with her a few months later. The government of Equatorial Guinea accused the US of backing the plot, which the Pentagon denied, claiming it was Mr Wales who made all the approaches to them.
British Home Secretary David Blunkett has acceded to a request of the government of Equatorial Guinea to authorise the police to investigate the role of Greg Wales in the attempted coup.
Ms Whelan told the IPOA conference that the Pentagon was keen to see private military companies operating in
She said; "Contractors are here to stay in supporting US national security objectives overseas". They were cheaper and saved the use of US forces in peacekeeping and training.
She added: "The US can be supportive in trying to ameliorate regional crises without necessarily having to put US troops on the ground, which is often a very difficult political decision. Sometimes we may not want to be very visible".
Ms Whelan merely confirmed the practice pursued by successive US governments over many years.
They secretly support or approve of private armies and mercenaries in many parts of the world and disclaim all knowledge of and responsibility for their activities when accusing fingers are pointed at them.
Whatever the truth behind the elaborate plot against the government of Equatorial Guinea, US military circles are sympathetic to the coup attempt.
One of the officials present at the original IPOA dinner said: "Ethically you have to want to see Obiang removed. It's a real indictment of the international community that they've failed to get rid of him". GM