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Last Updated: Jul 4, 2009 - 8:14:34 AM |
South African mercenaries have been recruited to reinstate deposed
Malagasy president Marc Ravalomanana, security-sector sources have told
the Mail & Guardian.
Ravalomanana has been based at a luxury Sandton hotel since fleeing
Madagascar in March.
Central to the efforts allegedly are two security operatives who
participated in the failed Equatorial Guinea coup attempt five years
ago.
Regional bodies have condemned Ravalomanana's unconstitutional ouster
and considered military action, but deferred to the Southern African
Development Community.
The latter, chaired by President Jacob Zuma, said two weeks ago that it
favoured negotiations and called on all parties to "desist from any
violent solutions".
Three sources connected to the local security sector, speaking on
condition of anonymity, told the M&G of the alleged mercenary
effort. The M&G also obtained a weapons procurement list allegedly
circulated on behalf of the Ravalomanana camp.
Information about the alleged recruitment echoes charges by the new
Malagasy regime, headed by former disc jockey and Antananarivo mayor
Andry Rajoelina.
Last week Rajoelina was quoted as saying: "There are people who are
thirsty for power; there are people who are even willing to come back
to power with mercenaries. Everyone is talking about it. And that is
what Mr Ravalomanana is busy doing."
Already before Rajoelina's accession to power, his camp made
accusations about South African mercenary support for Ravalomanana. The
M&G has confirmed the presence of three South African "instructors"
in Madagascar at the time.
On April 1, days after Ravalomanana's departure, police reportedly
searched the compound of QMM, a Rio Tinto-Malagasy joint venture that
mines mineral sands, for mercenaries and weapons caches from South
Africa. There were no reports of an actual find.
The pro-Rajoelina press last month made detailed allegations about a
mercenary force, supposedly numbering several hundred, being recruited
under contract to Ravalomanana by a United States-based private
military company and involving South Africans.
Malagasy security forces went on high alert before the country's
Independence Day celebrations last Friday, when a mercenary strike was
feared.
The claims include:
• Two of the M&G's sources named two private security operatives --
arrested in Zimbabwe en route to the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup
attempt -- as central to the Malagasy recruitment effort. We have not
published their names, as the claims are uncorroborated. One source
claimed both had participated in a planning meeting at a lodge outside
Pretoria some weeks ago. The other said he had information about both
having been to see Ravalomanana at his Sandton hotel the week before
last.
• A third source spoke of people "trying to book an airlift for a
collection of bouncers and thugs to recapture Antananarivo". He named a
person with alleged knowledge of the operation. The M&G spoke to
this person, who is politically well connected but whose name is
withheld because the allegations are uncorroborated. He confirmed
having introduced Ravalomanana to South African politicians but said he
had no knowledge of recruitment other than that of personnel to protect
Ravalomanana in South Africa.
• A report by a private intelligence operative last month stated:
"Rumours of possible military action are doing the rounds in South
Africa … According to these reports Ravalomanana has, with some South
African former military elements, been involved in planning a possible
retake of the island using South Africa as a staging point."
• A "weapons request" obtained by the M&G lists a requirement for
hundreds of Raptor assault rifles, Truvelo sniper rifles, thousands of
grenades and millions of rounds of ammunition. The list allegedly
originated in Swaziland, where Ravalomanana met King Mswati III days
after he was ousted. Raptor and Truvelo rifles are locally made.
The marked men
When the Malagasy media outed a group of South African "mercenaries"
serving then-president Ravalomanana, they were marked men.
On March 12, with Ravalomanana's grip on power slipping, newspaper La
Verité proclaimed: "The presence of foreign mercenaries on Malagasy
soil is no longer false rumours circulated by the local press. They
were at the Place du 13 Mai last Wednesday, March 4, giving orders to
Malagasy officers."
The newspaper named five South Africans who had entered Madagascar as
guests of Ravalomanana's presidency. The newspaper speculated that this
constituted "high treason" on the president's part.
The South African embassy wrote to La Verité in response, defending two
of the men, "diplomat" Mmatlou Moja and helicopter pilot Mathew
Beresford-Carter, pointing out that the former was part of an official
South African fact-finding mission and the latter was employed by a
private company on long-term contract to the Malagasy government. It
said it had no knowledge of the remaining three men. The M&G has
established that Moja, the "diplomat", is in fact employed by the South
African Secret Service, which would have had reason to participate in a
fact-finding mission. Beresford-Carter told the M&G this week: "I
was there purely to be a pilot for the president to fly him around … As
far as I'm concerned I was never a mercenary."
He said that his helicopter was shot at when he was asked to fly an
Israeli and a Russian who inspected incidents of unrest. After he was
named in the media, he had to go into hiding in the South African
embassy. He was "smuggled out" three weeks later, after Ravalomanana
was toppled.
The M&G tracked down two of the other men named. Charles Skog, who
recruits security operatives and other professionals to work
internationally, confirmed taking a team of two to Madagascar, on what
would have been a "big contract" to help in riot control and instruct
the local military in handling such situations.
He left for South Africa after a week, after which things went
"haywire" and he had to get his colleagues out. He denied he was a
mercenary. "I have absolutely no interest in red zones."
Skog's colleague, Gerhard de Klerk, told the M&G that after being
"branded" a mercenary, he and his remaining colleague, Werner Erasmus,
were advised by Ravalomanana's government to "get out as a faction of
the military was after us".
De Klerk described attempting to reinforce protection at Ravalomanana's
palace in Antananarivo and private estate south of the capital and to
instruct an "unreceptive" military in riot techniques.
Source:Ocnus.net 2009
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