Sierra Leone - The Mercenaries (Executive Outcomes, GSG, et al)

The Sierra Leone government made no pretenses about using mercenaries to fight against the Libyan-trained and Liberian-backed RUF. The government army was an anemic 1000 men back in 1991 but is now estimated at 10,000-14,000 troops, consisting mainly of press-ganged youths with about a week of training. Colonel Bob MacKenzie, a well-known mercenary (and former 101st Airborne with a Purple Heart earned in Vietnam) was killed and eaten by rebels in Sierra Leone in 1995. The government of Sierra Leone maintained that all the foreigners in the country were being utilized as "advisors," but it wasn't so. The old guard white mercenary stereotype was fading; the 150-200 Executive Outcomes (EO)-hired mercenaries were predominantly black (about an 8:1 ratio of black to white) and were recruited from the ranks of former ethnic Angolan ex UNITA fighters with extensive spec ops/bush warfare experience in South Africa, Namibia and Angola.

Drug and alcohol abuse are considered to be a major obstacle to training Sierra Leone government soldiers. EO is no fly-by-night merc group. For US$500,000 a month, they supplied the Freetown government 150 men (who earned about US$2000 a month), a 20-chopper-strong air force (all Russian Mi-24s and Mi-17s), nationwide radio communications, a full-time doctor and two evacuation aircraft on 24-hour standby (one based in Freetown and another in Luanda). EO also chartered two Boeing 727s to run supplies in and out of the country to South Africa. The EO training camp in Sierra Leone was at Waterloo, about 32 km east of the capital of Freetown. Troops went through a three-week boot camp.

In Sierra Leone, EO fought for diamonds in payment but EO sister companies also mine for gold in Uganda and drill boreholes in Ethiopia. In all, EO is part of a family of 32 companies, ranging from adult education firms to computer software interests, in countries such as Angola, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Lesotho. In September of '96, President Kabbah managed to get a discount on the $18.5 million they owed to EO for their security work. DP wonders if EO could foreclose? EO left Sierra Leone in February 1997, ahead of schedule, leaving the accountants to settle the bills--but may be back. In July 1997, Kabbah's government-in-exile and fugitive Indian banker Rakesh Saxena (on the run in a Thailand bank fraud case) were talking with Sandline International (i.e. EO), and paid Sandline CEO Tim Spicer (of Papua New Guinea fame) $70,000 to come up with a plan to punt Johnny Paul. Saxena has a bauxite concession in West Africa while Sandline chairman Tony Buckingham is a major shareholder in a Vancouver diamond mining company with six mining properties in SL.

EO has more than 1000 employees, three-quarters of whom are black. Most got their hard knocks in the elite tiers of the former South African Defense Force. For now EO is out of Sierra Leone but standing by, waiting for the phone to ring.

Executive Outcomes

Recruitment Officer

PVT. BAG X-105

Hennopsmeer 0046

South Africa

Tel [27] (12) 666-8429/7005