I started a long piece on Sandline/Aegis last night then ran outta energy to sub edit it which is probably a good thing because although it has more detail about Spicer's attempt to enter the genocide game in Bouganville it misses the point about the demopublican senators (Kennedy of the sleasebag ilk) attacking Spicer in an earnest attempt to get the contract for the even dodgier DynCorp International a 'firm' which carries the concept of sexual imperialism to a whole new level. They were in Bosnia to protect the citizens but ended up moving pre-teenage girls from the former Soviet Union to "Sex Clubs" in Western Europe and the UK. One of their workers objected and tried to notify H.Q. of the sideline so they fired him.

Spicer/Sandline/Aegis is the latest in a long line of Brit paid killers. One of the most famous was 'Mad' Mike Hoare, originally Irish, who wreaked a fair amount of havoc in the Congo in the early 60's. There was a movie/book loosely based on Hoare's escapades called "The Dogs of War".

I've got a friend who worked for him in the Congo who is not such a bad bloke. Nowadays you'd call him a libertarian I guess. He was hard work at first because he was such an out and out racist. After a few years of living in countries where institutionalized racism wasn't socially acceptable he got used to mingling with people who weren't white and overcame his conditioning. The big breakthru came when he shared a house with a mate of ours who wasn't only black (Aboriginal) he was also gay!

But anyway I digress again from the point which was that these Brit outfits always work the same way.
They find a country rich in natural resources and with a weak infrastructure caused by an economic squeeze being placed upon them by whitefella corporations who want the resources but don't want to pay for them. (Hmmm haven't we seen that somewhere lately?)

The local population is pretty pissed so a halfway credible and usually corrupt local leader is persuaded that now is his big opportunity. A foreign mining company bankrolls this little boys own adventure where people die and the resources get grabbed by Britain, France or the US.

This is the world of post-colonialism.

It is almost respectable. Margaret Thatcher's son Sir Mark Thatcher got involved in a deal like this in equatorial Guinea which if memory serves is unfortunate enough to be rich the usual suspect oil. NB Thatcher didn't do anything to become 'Sir Mark' unless you count your father dying as doing something. He is a baronet an hereditary form of Knight which although no longer handed out still exists by way of inheritance.

The struggle doesn't necessarily end after the coup either. It may be that another corporation sees it's chance if the new regime isn't as popular as it could be.

The Bougainville story is the one I am most familiar with and is a reasonable indicator of the depth of Spicer's greed.

Now time for a history lesson but I will try and keep this short.

Many people in the North will probably be unaware of this but Australia played at being an Imperial power too. Their colony was Papua New Guinea which is a few islands to the North of Australia. The largest island was split down the middle the Eastern side is Papua New Guinea, an allegedly independent state and the West side is Irian Jaya, which is part of Indonesia and has it's own set of troubles. People are being wiped out by the territorial pressure being put upon them by Indonesia's transmigration program. But we'll save that for another day.

As will a lengthy monolog on Australia's game of let's pretend to be a big time Imperialist power. Suffice to say that like all colonial misadventures the nation/colony's borders were constructed according to the whims of a bunch of cigar smoking, brandy sipping, chinless assholes in Europe, without any particular regard to areas, traditional family ties, and ethnicity. The only reason that the Melanesian nations haven't been consumed in eternal conflict is that contrary to the popular whitefella view, Kanaks aren't warring headhunters and cannibals; they are interested in getting on with others as much as possible.

Anyway some of the islands that were attached to Papua New Guinea at 'independence' more properly should have been made part of the Solomons, another great mob of people who are caught up in low level conflict primarily caused by a colonial 'divide and rule' strategy which was never resolved.

Probably Bouganville the island where the people are culturally more related to the Solomon Islanders than PNG was kept within PNG because it is unfortunate enough to have a mountain made almost entirely of copper. (scroll down to the Historical Time Line)

I'm not being ironic when I say unfortunate because even a cursory study of developing nations who have lots of resources will reveal that the locals would have been much better off if no one had known about these resources. An alleged 'developed', democratic society like Australia has been hugely disadvantaged by it's wealth of natural resources. So imagine what it is like for an even more unsophisticated nation with a leadership who tend to take others on that old fashioned virtue, 'trust'.

Big copper mine developed at Bouganville in the 80's. I'm embarrassed to admit to having been on the fringes of recruitment for the mine. All the deals over who cops the cash were done back at Port Moresby in PNG which meant that the pittance on offer from the mining companies was going to Papuan politicians rather than the indigenous Bouganvillians. When you consider the damage done by open cut or strip mining. Particularly the pollution which is the by-product of the initial copper ore extraction, and the fact that the locals were about to lose a mountain that had featured in their culture and stories forever, you can understand that the locals became a bit antsy. The plan was to make a big hole in the ground where the mountain had once been. The rivers were full of chemicals and crap poisoning the fish. The forests were disappearing (this is an equatorial rainforest area) and although it was becoming more difficult to hunt and gather there was no way of accessing the cash economy. All the mine workers were imported from Australia and what 'co-ordination' jobs given to locals had in fact gone to Papuans with relations/contacts in Port Moresby.

The violence started off low level but the mining company pulled out. It didn't matter too much to them, they owned the mountain and waiting would probably mean they got a better price.

Not so for the politician's of Port Moresby who needed the money flowing for themselves and more importantly to meet promises they had made to the people in the highlands of Papua who had lost their environment but hadn't really kicked up until it was too late, so there was no money for them. But they did have the power of the ballot. Being Papuans rather than Solomon Islanders they had considerable political muscle and had to be paid off.

So PNG sent in the Army and for nearly a decade the Papuan army fought the Bouganvillians. Many lives were lost on both sides because the culture of 'payback' is deeply ingrained with the people. A bit like Iraq, in that, if someone from your clan gets killed then it is your duty to take out someone from the killer's clan. A recipe for a never ending cycle of violence. Generally the clans will sit down and talk to work something out so although it may seem extreme to us, in most instances the negotiations would resolve before many/any deaths.

But Bouganville and Papua don't have adjoining Territory, which is frequently the source of inter-clan conflict also enables the contact between clan leaders that is essential to resolve a dispute.

So the fighting spun totally out of control. Around 7000 deaths in a population of under 100, 000; before a sitdown was organized. I notice a link above tells us that this sitdown was organized by the women. I didn't know that. This was done and the PNG forces changed their occupation from brutal repression to live and let live.

That didn't help the politicians in Moresby though. They decided to hire mercenaries to get their copper. This of course meant that the only real way to secure the mine was to wipe out the locals. Spicer didn't seem to have a problem with that. A contract is a contract is a contract.

However many Papuans did. They leaked out what was going to happen to the PNG army who then marched on the parliament and forced the resignation of Prime Minister Julius Chan.

They were angry that their army had been sidelined by politicians and concerned that they would become irrelevant. They were very pissed about the huge amount of money that Spicer/Sandlines were getting when they were owed big time back pay, and compensation had never been paid to clans who had lost soldiers. Most of all though they had given their word at the sitdown and now a bunch of weasely pollies had betrayed that word. PNG society has survived reasonably intact because they have stuck to the traditions developed centuries earlier. If a clan's word no longer meant anything, without even looking at the dishonor that would bring upon that clan, it would endanger the foundations of their society.

So Spicer was chased out clutching a bag of US$400,000 in cash.

Next stop next year Sierra Leone, the birthplace of 'conflict diamonds'. Frequently gathered by chopping the arms of the children in a village until that mob submits.

Sandlines/Aegis/Spicer used to refer to themselves as mercenaries.

It is worth noting that Wikpedia entry goes on to say:

"Under GC III if a soldier is captured by an enemy, he must be treated as a lawful combatant and therefore a Protected Person which for a soldier is as a Prisoner of War (POW) until the soldier has faced a competent tribunal (GC III Art 5). That tribunal may decide that the person is a mercenary using criteria in APGC77 or some domestic law equivalent. At that point the mercenary becomes an unlawful combatant but they must still be "treated with humanity and, in case of trial, shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial", because they are still covered by GC IV Art 5. The only exception to GC IV Art 5 is if they are a national of the authority which is holding them but in which case they would not be a mercenary under APGC77 Art 47.d.

If after a regular trial, a captured soldier is found to be a mercenary, then they can expect to be treated as common criminals and may face execution. As they are not POWs they can not expect repatriation at the end of the war. The best known, post-World War II, example of this was on June 28, 1976 when an Angolan court sentenced four mercenaries to death and nine others to prison terms ranging from 16 to 30 years. The three Britons and an American were shot by a firing squad on July 10, 1976."

Perhaps this is where the term unlawful combatant originates. It which case it is difficult to see that someone fighting to rid their nation of invaders could be deemed to be such. However the Aegis and Halliburton 'contractors' may fit that description.
As a side bar the Angolan executions were carried out not only because these mercenaries committed some particularly foul atrocities, but these guys had also slaughtered some of their own men who refused to 'go with the program' of murder and rape.

Anyway the point is we have Aegis/Sandlines, DynCorp International and Halliburtons as the primary respondents for contracts in the 'new' Iraq. It really makes you feel for the long suffering Iraqis if that's their options. The new improved privatized war. Westhusing's suicide is starting to look like the act of a reasonable man.

Lastly didn't the whole Falluja horror begin when some 'contractors' got lynched ? If they had been behaving like Aegis, is it any surprise.

I apologise for typos and grammar errors as well as the delay in getting stuff out, but the 'poison' is making it difficult to proofread. And I said that to explain the errors of late not to generate dialogue on DiD's minor obstacles.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 28, 2005 5:32:29 PM | #

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