Bougainville - Have Gun/Will Travel

Sandline International won their court case against the government of PNG. It seems that even if you change your mind about the tune, you must still pay the piper. Sandline was brought in to clean up PNG's nasty rebel infestation. To do that they subbed out the dirty work to Executive Outcomes (EO), a now defunct mercenary firm out of South Africa. EO flashed a card almost identical to TV's Paladin, or a knight's chess piece. The company's form of security for mining operations was part of a new trend in "outsourcing" security services to stabilize entire countries as evidenced in Angola and Sierra Leone. When PNG prime minister Julius Chan brought in the hired guns, he neglected to tell folks that he actually owned a piece of a mining security firm that took care of some nasty business in PNG. Well, enough dirt. What do you get for $36 million (up from the original fixed price of $32 million) these days? Well, first you get an ever so euphemistic proposal with statements like: "This operation is highly sensitive and needs to be carried out with a precision that will completely disable the enemy command structure with minimum collateral damage in order to make it acceptable to the Government and people of PNG and to world opinion."

Nicely put, but how exactly did they intend to snuff out the fuzzy-haired little buggers so the big boys can cash their checks?

"To achieve this, the military imperative is the ability to gather high-grade, specific intelligence about the location, capacity and intentions of the enemy force, particularly their C31 assets and match that intelligence with a strike capability, the key ingredients of which are: firepower, mobility, precision, speed and surprise." What this means is that EO's air wing would bring in one fixed-wing aircraft carrying $4 million worth of electronic eavesdropping and sensing gizmos to take pictures and record sounds and then send in troops and helicopter gunships to wax the leaders. Soldiers would be paid around $13,000 a month and get full medical and insurance benefits and rapid evacuation via EO's jet aircraft to Australian hospitals.

The PNG government had to pony up all logistic support, including fuel, accommodation, food and medical supplies for all personnel. It also included three secret trips by team leader and now jailbird Tim Spicer.

The deposit of $15 million was cashed. The mercs were tossed. The East German gunships are sitting gathering dust in Australia. Sandline sued and won. The mercs are all back here killing time instead of islanders. When DP asked Sandline if they had a message for Ona, they asked quite politely that they give them credit for forcing the peace process. Ona wishes they could have tussled in the thick green jungles of his backyard. "We would have liked to whip those boys," he said chuckling.

Sandline International

www.sandline.com