1.1 Gurkhas and French Foreign Legionnaires are not mercenaries

The two best known units in which nationals of a country serve in another nation's armed forces are the British Brigade of Gurkhas and the French Foreign LegionThe French Foreign Legion F''. Legion Etrangere is a military unit of the French Army since 1831. History The French Foreign Legion was created by Louis Philippe, the French King at the time, on March 10, 1831, to support his war in Algeria. Successive le. Soldiers who serve in these two elite units are not mercenaries.

British Gurkhas are fully integrated soldiers of the British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces of the United Kingdom. It numbers 99,400 fully trained and professional regulars (as of April 2004). In contrast to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, the British Army does not include royal in its title, bec. They operate in formed units of the Brigade of Gurkhas and abide by the rules and regulations under which all British soldiers serve,[1](Similar rules apply for Gurkhas serving in Indian ArmyThe Indian Army is the army of the Republic of India''. See the British Indian Army the pre-independence Indian Army Upon independence in 1947 the British Indian Army was split, with most units going to India, and the rest going to Pakistan. Some Gurkha u). French Foreign Legionnaires are in formed units of the French Foreign LegionThe French Foreign Legion F''. Legion Etrangere is a military unit of the French Army since 1831. History The French Foreign Legion was created by Louis Philippe, the French King at the time, on March 10, 1831, to support his war in Algeria. Successive le which is deployed and fights as an organized unit of the French Army. This means that as member of the armed forces of Britain or France then under APGC77 Art 47.e and APGC77 Art 47.f they can not be mercenaries.

1.2 Mercenaries and domestic law

Some countries try to stop their citizens fighting in conflicts unless they are under the control of their own armed forces. For example under United States law (the "Neutrality Act"), an American citizen who participates in an armed conflict to which the United States is neutral may be subject to criminal penalties.

SwitzerlandThe Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in central Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. The country has a strong tradition of political and military neutrality, but also of international c banned her nationals from serving as mercenaries in 1927 with the one exception being the Vatican Swiss Guards.

2 Mercenary Operations

It is known that mercenaries have been hired to fight in the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Many of these were ex-Eastern Bloc soldiers who had no employment opportunities after the fall of the Soviet Union.

2.1 Private Military Company (PMC)

Private military companies are companies that provide logistics, manpower, and other expenditures for a military force. Their contractors are civilians authorized to accompany a force in the field.

It can be argued that paramilitary forces under private control are functionally mercenaries instead of security guards or advisors. However, national governments reserve the right to strictly regulate the number, nature and armaments of such private forces and argue that providing they are not employed in frontline pro-active military activities that they are not mercenaries.

If employees of PMCs are involved in pro-active military activities they are likely to be defined as mercenaries and their employers will be called mercenary companies. Three companies which the mass media called mercenary companies in the 1990s were:

• Executive Outcomes Angola, Sierra Leone (closed 31 December 1998)
• Sandline International, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone (closed 16 April 2004)
• Gurkha Security Guards Ltd, Sierra Leone.

In 2004 the industry was given a huge boost because PMCs were employed by the US and other coalition members to do security work in Iraq.

Private military companies tend to be frowned upon by the United Nations (even so, the UN hired Executive Outcomes to do some logistic support in Africa). Nevertheless, PMCs may be useful in combatting genocides and slaughters in situations where the UN is unwilling or unable to intervene.

3 Mercenaries in Africa

In the 20th century, mercenaries have been mostly involved in conflicts on the continent of Africa. There have been a number of unsavory incidents in the brushfire wars of Africa, some involving recruitment of naive European and American men "looking for adventure" and thrusting them into combat situations where they would not survive to get paid.

Many of the adventurers in Africa who have been described as mercenaries were in fact ideologically motivated to support particular governments, and would not fight "for the highest bidder."

Particularly notorious mercenaries include:

• Mike Hoare was involved in the Congo War in the early 1960s and a Seychelles failed coup in 1978.
• Bob Denard was involved in numerous African campaigns in many countries often with the covert support of France. However his particular speciality was intervening in the Comoros. The last time was in 1995, when he staged a coup which failed, thanks to French Government intervention.
• Simon Mann was involved with Executive Outcomes ventures in Angola and Sierra Leone (see below). In 2004 was found guilty in Zimbabwe of "attempting to buy weapons" (BBC August 27) allegedly for a coup in Equatorial Guinean (see below).

Mercenaries fought for the Biafrans in the 4th Commando Brigade during the Nigerian Civil War, (1967–1970). Other mercenaries flew aircraft for the Biafrans. In October 1966, for example, a Royal Air Burundi DC-4M Argonaut, flown by a mercenary Heinrich Wartski also known Henry Wharton, crashlanded in Cameroon with military supplies destined for Biafra.

In the mid- 1970s John Banks, a Briton, recruited mercenaries to fight for the National Front for the Liberation of Angola FNLA against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( MPLA) in the civil war that broke out when Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975. When captured John Derek Barker's role as a leader of mercenaries in Northern Angola led the judges to send him to face the firing squad. Nine others were imprisoned. Three more were executed: American Daniel Gearhart, was sentenced to death for advertising himself as a mercenary in an American newspaper; Andrew McKenzie and Costas Georgiou (the self styled "Colonel Callan"), who had both served in the British army, were sentenced to death for murder.

American Bob MacKenzie, was killed in the Malal Hills in February 1995 while commanding Gurkha Security Guards (GSG) in Sierra Leone. GSG pulled out soon afterwards and was replaced by Executive Outcomes. Both were employed by the Sierra Leone government as military advisers and to train the government soldiers. It has been alleged that the firms provided solders who to an active part in the fighting against the Revolutionary United Front(RUF).

A fictional portrait of mercenary operations in the 1970s is Frederick Forsyth's book, The Dogs of War was set on the island of Malabo - renamed 'Zangoro' in the novel - and given a platinum deposit. Since the discovery of oil there in the mid 1990s, it does not need a fictional platinum deposit for it to be of interest to financiers and mercenaries. In August 2004 there was the a plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in Malabo. Currently eight South African apartheid-era soldiers (the leader of whom is Nick du Toit), six Armenian aircrew and five local men are in Black Beach prison on the island. They are accused of being an advanced guard for a coup to place Severo Moto in power. CNN reported on August 25, that:

Defendant Nick du Toit said he was introduced to Thatcher in South Africa last year by Simon Mann, the leader of 70 men arrested in Zimbabwe in March suspected of being a group of mercenaries heading to Equatorial Guinea.

It was planned, it is alleged, by Simon Mann (a founder of Executive Outcomes) a former SAS officer. On 27 August 2004 he was found guilty in Zimbabwe of purchasing Arms it is alledged for use in the plot, (He admitted trying to procure dangerous weapons, but said that they were to guard a diamond mine in DR Congo). It is alleged that there is a paper trail from him which implicates Sir Mark Thatcher, Lord Archer and Ely Calil (a Lebanese-born oil trader).

The BBC reported in an article entitled "Q&A: Equatorial Guinea coup plot":

The BBC's Newsnight television programme saw the financial records of Simon Mann's companies showing large payments to Nick du Toit and also some $2m coming in - though the source of this funding they say is largely untraceable.

The BBC reported on September 10, 2004 that in Zimbabwe:

[Simon Mann], the British leader of a group of 67 alleged mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea has been sentenced to seven years in jail... The other passengers got 12 months in jail for breaking immigration laws while the two pilots got 16 months...The court also ordered the seizure of Mann's $3m Boeing 727 and $180,000 found on board.

With the current crises in Zimbabwe, a Boeing 727 will be a useful addition to the state's national airline and the $180,000 should be more than enough to cover the expense of keeping the men in prison.

4 Mercenaries in European History

4.1 Mercenaries in the Classic era

Many Greek mercenaries fought for the Persian empire during the early classic era. For example:

• In Anabasis, Xenophon recounts how Cyrus the Younger hired a large army of Greek mercenaries in 401 BC to seize the throne of Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Though Cyrus' army was victorious at the Battle of Cunaxa, Cyrus himself was killed in battle and the expedition rendered moot. Stranded deep in enemy territory, the Spartan general Clearchus and most of the other Greek generals were subsequently killed by treachery. Xenophon played an instrumental role in encouraging "The Ten Thousand" Greek army to march north to the Black Sea in an epic fighting retreat.

• Xerxes I, king of Persia, who invaded Greece in 484 BC employed Greek mercenaries. The best rembered is Demaratus, for his warning to Xerxes not to under estimate the Spartans before the Battle of Thermopylae.

• Memnon of Rhodes ( 380– 333 BC): was the commander of the Greek mercenaries working for the Persian King Darius III when Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded Persia in 334 BC and won the Battle of the Granicus River. Alexander also employed Greek mercenaries during his campaings. These were men who fought for him directly and not those who fought in city state units attached to his army.

Carthage contracted Balearic Islands shepherds as slingshooters during the Punic wars against Rome.

In the late Roman Empire, it became increasingly difficult for Emperors and generals to raise military units from the citizenry for various reasons: lack of manpower, lack of time available for training, lack of materials, and, inevitably, political considerations. Therefore, beginning in the late 4th century, the empire often contracted whole bands of barbarians either within the legions or as autonomous foederati. The barbarians were Romanized and surviving veterans were established in areas requiring population. The Varangian Guard of the Eastern Roman Emipre otherwise known as the Byzantine Empire is the best known formation made up of barbarian mercenaries. The future king Harald III of Norway, also known as Harald Hardrada ("Hardreign"), who arrived in Constantinople in 1035 was employed as a Varangian Guard. He participated in eighteen battles and became Akolythos, the commander, of the Guard before returning home in 1043. He was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge by the army of King Harold Godwinson of England in 1066.

4.2 Mercenaries in Medieval warfare

Byzantine Emperors followed the Roman practise and contracted foreigners especially for their personal corps guard. They were chosen among war-prone peoples. Since they didn't have links to the Greeks, they were expected to be ready to suffocate rebellions. Varangians and Anglo-Saxons were elected for this service.

In Italy, the condottiero was a military chief offering his troops, the condottieri, to city-states.

During the ages of the Taifa kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, Christian knights like the Cid could fight for some Muslim ruler against his Christian or Muslim enemies.

The Almogavares fought for Aragon but in their expedition to Orient, they followed Roger de Flor in the service of the Byzantine Empire.

During the later middle ages, Free Companies (or Free Lances) were formed, consisting of companies of mercenary troops. Nation-states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire free companies to serve in their armies during wartime. Such companies typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments. The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries. Free Companies would often specialized in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the from of a mobilized militia.

See also: Bertrand Duguesclin, White Company , Scottish clan.

4.3 Mercenaries in the Modern Age

Swiss mercenaries were sought after during the latter half of the 15th century as being an effective fighting force, until their somewhat rigid battle formations became vulnerable to arquebuses and artillery being developed at about that period.

It was then that the European landsknechts, colorful mercenaries with a redoubtable reputation, took over the Swiss forces' legacy and became the most formidable force of the late 15th and throughout the 16th century, being hired by all the powers in Europe and often fighting at opposite sides.

St Thomas More in his Utopia advocated the use of mercenaries in preference to citizens. The barbarian mercenaries employed by the Utopians are thought to be inspired by the Swiss mercenaries.

5 Mercenaries in Popular Culture

Like piracy, the mercenary ethos resonates with idealized adventure, mystery and danger. examples of this are:

• The novel Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth and the movie (1981) with the same name, goes into some detail about an actual if fictionalized mercenary operation in Africa in the 1960s.
• The novel The Wild Geese by Daniel Carney and the movie(1978) with the same name. The plot is that a global British financial syndicate seeks to rescue the deposed leader of a central African nation. It hires a band of mercenaries to do the job.

It is interesting to note that the both titles are derived from other sources. Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war; is from Julius Caesar (III.i) a play by Shakespeare's. After the signing of the Treaty of Limerick (1691) the soldiers of the Irish Army who left Ireland for France took part in what is known as the Flight of the Wild Geese. Many made a living from working as mere mercenaries for continental armies.

A magazine ostensibly written for mercenary soldiers is Soldier of Fortune.

In science fiction, the well-known author Jerry Pournelle has written several books about science-fiction mercenaries known as Falkenberg's Legion. Also, author David Drake has written a number of books about the fictional hovercraft armored regiment Hammer's Slammers. Both series of books are brutal in their portrayal of complex low-intensity warfare despite technological advances.

See also The Magnificent Seven, ronin, yojimbo.

Warfare Military terms

6 External links

• UNHCHR: Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on use of mercenaries
• BBC on the trial in 1976 of the Angolan merceneries
• CNN special on merceneries
• London Independent (Sep 2 04): How oil brought the dogs of war back to Malabo
• Glasgow Herald August 26 2004: "'Scratcher' and the battle for Guinea" by Allan Laing
• CNN August 25, 2004:MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (Reuters) Nick du Toit said he was introduced to Thatcher in South Africa last year by Simon Mann
• BBC August 27 2004; Mann guilty of purchasing weapons
• BBC Q&A: Equatorial Guinea coup plot
• BBC Report on sentencing August 2004

Military people Military terms

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