Ex-SA soldiers provide training, logistics

South Africans assisting the government of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in its war against rebels have been careful not to fall foul of their own country's laws banning mercenary activity. A military analyst with the Institute for Security Studies based in Pretoria, South Africa, told IRIN that between 10 and 20 former officers of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) were operating in Cote d'Ivoire. "They would not be classified as mercenaries as they do not get involved in any fighting. They are technical advisers. What they're doing is training and logistical coordination, they're supplying chopper pilot [training] that type of thing," said Henri Boshoff. He said the South Africans had all been senior officers in the SANDF and had contracted themselves individually with the Ivorian government. "They're not there as an organisation or group or anything ... they then avoid falling foul of the law," Boshoff said. That law is the Foreign Military Assistance Act of 1995, which makes it illegal for South Africans to fight for a foreign country or organisation without government permission. South African foreign affairs spokesman Ronny Mamoepa had earlier told IRIN that any of the country's citizens involved in fighting in Cote d'Ivoire would be faced with arrest and, if convicted, a prison sentence and/or a fine. Mamoepa noted that South Africa was the current chair of the African Union (AU) and therefore heavily "involved in the AU processes to create peace and stability in the Ivory Coast". Boshoff said there were also Bulgarians and French private military advisers working in Cote d'Ivoire. "It's a growing industry," he added. Former South African soldiers were hiring themselves out as security consultants to various corporations expanding their operations in Africa. "It's all legal, they're acting as technical and security advisers. But if it were 60 soldiers picking up firearms to go fight, that would be a different story," he noted. The Ivorian conflict broke out on 19 September, when rebels including former members of the Ivorian military failed in a bid to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo but took over key towns in the centre and north of the country. A ceasefire agreement was concluded on 17 October, but the assassination of the brother of a senior member of the rebel Mouvement patriotique de Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI) in the commercial capital Abidjan on Friday prompted the insurgents to suspend talks with a delegation designated by the Ivorian government.