Cape Times
Bill tough on mercenaries, but not 'freedom fighters'
September 29, 2005
By Peter Fabricius
The government plans to toughen up its anti-mercenary law, but has made a controversial exception that would allow South Africans to join liberation struggles in other countries.
Draft amendments to the 1998 Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act would introduce compulsory minimum jail terms of up to 15 years for South Africans who provide military or security services abroad.
It will also give the government broader discretion to decide which countries South Africans may serve in.
Analysts believe the law is aimed at the hundreds of South Africans serving in Iraq as security officers and guards on the side of the Iraqi government and its foreign backers led by the US.
But while tightening up on these, it excludes "participation in national liberation struggles for the liberation of peoples of any country, self-determination and independence from colonialism, occupation, aggression or domination in accordance with the principles of international law".
"Does this mean it's OK to join Hamas?" asked one analyst.
The amendment bill has not been formally tabled in parliament but it was approved by the cabinet on September 14.
It is understood that the bill remains essentially the same.
Yesterday MP Kader Asmal, who helped draft the bill as chairman of parliament's defence committee, defended the exemption from the law for South Africans participating in liberation struggles.
He said the United Nations, in its recent negotiations on defining terrorism, had not defined those who participated in liberation struggles as terrorists.
The original 1998 legislation is is widely regarded as being too vague to deter South Africans, including South African residents - from working abroad as soldiers or security officers.
So far, South African courts have been able to fine only a few individuals after out-of-court settlements.
The most notable fine was that handed earlier this year to Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, for allegedly helping to finance the purchase of a helicopter that was to have been used in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea.
The law as it stands allows judges to impose sentences or fines and does not set minimums.
The draft amendment would set minimum jail terms of five, 10 and 15 years, without the option of a fine.
It would also give the government-controlled National Conventional Arms Control Committee the power to define any country as "regulated" - thereby forbidding South Africans from offering military or security services in such a country.
One analyst, who asked not to be named, said this measure appeared to be aimed at the many South Africans doing security work in Iraq.
The draft amendment would expose inconsistencies in approach. Instead of defining forbidden mercenary activity more precisely, the government had given itself discretion to select countries in which South Africans could not serve.
"It looks like they are saying it's OK to be a mercenary for someone we like, but not for someone we don't like.
"What about places like Sudan? The US is increasingly offering to help the African Union deal with conflicts and has farmed out some of this work to private security companies. Isn't that mercenarism as defined by this legislation?"
Moderator: I know not directly aviation related, but I think of great interest to those operating in Africa.