Asia-Pacific Network: 3 January 1999
MERCENARIES: EXECUTIVE DOGS OF WAR HAVE HAD THEIR DAY
Executive Outcomes, the South African mercenary company involved in conflicts from Sierra Leone to Papua New Guinea, was reportedly closing at the end of 1998. The company was at the heart of the Sandline affair and has recently successfully sued the PNG Government over compensation for part of its aborted operations.
By ANTON LA GUARDIA in Johannesburg
Original article: Electronic Telegraph, 11 December 1998
EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES, the South African mercenary company involved in conflicts from Sierra Leone to Papua New Guinea, is to close at the end of the year (1998).
The company, which was the leader of the new generation of mercenaries who have replaced the old "dogs of war" fatigues with business suits, said yesterday that governments in Africa, the main source of business, had made important strides in establishing law and order.
The owner of Executive Outcomes, Nico Palm, said: "African countries are busy working out solutions in Africa. Let's give them a chance. I am going to get involved in other things which keep me out of the limelight. I am going to close the company and I will not be involved in the security business."
But well-placed insiders in the shadowy world of military consultancy said the main reason for closing was that major military contracts were drying up because of the controversy surrounding companies such as Executive Outcomes and Britain's Sandline International.
The South African government earlier this year passed anti-mercenary legislation designed to regulate and curb military freelancers. Executive Outcomes was licensed but the new rules may have contributed to an unfavourable climate for the company.
Executive Outcomes was founded in the dying days of white minority rule by officers from special forces units. It helped the Angolan government to train forces for the war against the rebel Unita movement, and assisted in the restoration of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to power in Sierra Leone in May after he had been deposed in a coup.
Its Internet website was filled with the reassuring language of the corporate world. It explained that Executive Outcomes provided "a highly professional and confidential military advisory service to legitimate governments". Its training packages included anything from paramilitary services to air warfare and "peacekeeping (persuasion) services". It supported "reconstruction and development programmes for better quality of life and greater opportunities for individuals and communities".
But Executive Outcomes had also been at the centre of accusations that private security companies were "re-colonising" Africa by securing mining concessions, through a network of subsidiary and front companies, in return for its services. In recent times, it has been recruited for the mundane task of protecting farms in South Africa from rustlers.
"There has been a negative attitude towards companies such as Executive Outcomes, which is affecting their ability to find business," said one executive of a security company, "Even countries that cannot find military help from other countries are sensitive about using Executive Outcomes. This is a warning bell for other companies. The world will lose an option to solve international crises. Governments will have to resort once again to old-style, unregulated mercenaries."
But Jakkie Cilliers, executive director of the Institute of Security Studies in Johannesburg, said the closure of Executive Outcomes would change little because its activities were spread through a large network of security companies, many of them outside South Africa.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 1998.