[NYTr] Merc Plane was Involved in Spanish-US-UK Coup Plot
ny...@tania.blythe-systems.com
[The US is denying all, pulling out its favorite description "utter
nonsense" to characterize charges that the US Government had anything
at all to do with coup plots against Equitorial Guinea or mercenaries
arrested in Zimbabwe on a US plane, owned by a US company and
formerly owned by the US Air Force.]
The Star (S.Africa) - 11 March 2004
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=371554
Mercenaries' face death penalty
By Basildon Peta and Lee Rondganger
Zimbabwe said it may execute the 64 suspected mercenaries under
arrest in Harare as it implicated US, British and Spanish spy
agencies in a plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinean government.
"They are going to face the severest punishment available in our
statutes, including capital punishment," Zimbabwean Foreign Minister
Stan Mudenge told a news briefing yesterday. "We will give them all
the rights they are entitled to."
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi last night claimed the British,
Spanish and US secret services were all involved in a bid to topple
Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Mohadi told a press conference that Simon Mann, one of three men
detained after meeting the Boeing 727-100 which landed at Harare
International Airport, "has been co-operating and has revealed that
they were aided by the British secret service (MI6), the American
Central Intelligence Agency and the Spanish secret service".
Zimbabwean legal and political science scholars said the government's
claim that the men were targeting a foreign government could
complicate its wish to execute them.
They said all security and treason offences punishable by death
were aimed at acts directed at Zimbabwe.
If it was proved that the alleged soldiers of fortune were also
targeting Zimbabwe, they could be charged under Section 6 of the
Public Order and Security Act, which prescribes the death penalty,
said University of Zimbabwe law professor Lovemore Madhuku.
Professor Elphas Mukonweshuro, of the University of Zimbabwe, said
Zimbabwe's security laws were so broad and vague that the government
could still try "to spin up a charge against them".
"The odds are stacked against these guys, particularly because they
will face a judiciary which takes instructions from politicians,"
said a lawyer who requested anonymity.
Lawyers said that if the due process of law was allowed to take its
course, the 64 could be charged with offences relating to illegal
carrying of prohibited weapons, false declarations of air cargo and
violations of the Civil Aviation Act.
None of these offences carry lengthy prison terms, the lawyers said.
But Mukonweshuro said the fact that Mudenge had chosen to suggest
the death penalty even before charges had been brought was not an
encouraging sign.
If the men are not executed, but a way is found to condemn them to
long prison sentences, they face an unpleasant life in Zimbabwe's
prisons.
Filthy, inhumane conditions and overcrowded cells are common in
Zimbabwean prisons.
This was highlighted by the plight of three South Africans, Kevin
Wood, Philip Conjwayo and Michael Smith, who are serving life
sentences in Harare's Chikurubi maximum security prison.
They were sentenced to life in prison in 1988 for murder and terrorism
arising from raids against ANC targets in 1987 and 1988.
They spent five years in solitary confinement and were allowed "an
hour out of their small concrete cells each morning and afternoon.
Shortly after conviction, they were forced to spend one-and-a-half
years naked, according to reports posted on the Internet by their
families.
Even during the winter they had no clothing or blankets. They spent
21 months without sunlight. They were allowed to receive and send
only one letter a month and were permitted only one visit from one
family member a month.
Visits at Chikurubi are of 15 minutes' duration and are carried out
on monitored and tape-recorded telephones through double glass.
After two years on death row, they obtained relief from Zimbabwe's
Supreme Court to double their time out of their cells each day.
Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, the men's families have been
fighting the Zimbabwean justice system - unsuccessfully - for the
men to be pardoned or serve the rest of their sentence in South
Africa.
On December 24 2001 a family member wrote: "They are now having
problems with lice.
The cooking boilers are working again but still no bread and now
no eggs, potatoes, tomatoes or the medical issue of two toilet rolls
a month."
Mike has two broken teeth and is being denied dental treatment.
Their latest excuse is that there is no anaesthetic."
According to a 1997 report by African Eye News Service, prisoners
are confined to their squalid cells between the hours of 3.30pm and
7am every day.
"Some inmates refuse to wash, which results in blankets becoming
lice infested.
There is a predominance of HIV-positive, practising homosexuals
within this rat- and lice-infested prison," the report said.
The report said prisoners often had to share cells with people in
the terminal stages of Aids, tuberculosis, herpes and other infectious
diseases, as well as the mentally ill.
"Many of the infected prisoners are unable to control their bodily
functions, and this results in the cell floor and blankets being
contaminated with body fluids."
South Africa's high commissioner to Zimbabwe, Jeremiah Ndou said
the suspects were expected in court today and would be helped in
finding lawyers. - Independent Foreign Service
***
Voice of America - 10 March 2004 23:43 UTC
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=87EF2C2E-F194-4C97-915820CAB7B93653#
US Denies Connection With Seized Plane in Zimbabwe
by David Gollust
The United States is categorically denying any connection with the
cargo jetliner and its 64 passengers held since Sunday by authorities
in Zimbabwe. A State Department official rejected Zimbabwean charges
that the plane and the alleged mercenaries on board were part of a
U.S.-related coup plot against the leadership of Equatorial Guinea.
A senior official in Washington says that neither the aging Boeing
727 cargo plane nor the 64 men Zimbabwe says were on board had any
connection with the United States government, and he says claims
to the contrary by Zimbabwean authorities are "utter nonsense."
The comments followed a charge by Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister,
Kembo Mohadi, Wednesday that the aircraft and those aboard had been
bound for Equatorial Guinea to take part in a plot backed by the
intelligence agencies of the United States, Britain and Spain against
the government of the tiny, oil-rich state.
The State Department official said the notion of U.S. involvement
is "absolutely false" and that he spoke for all elements of the
U.S. government on the issue
He expressed puzzlement as to why such "idle rumors" were being
spread, and said despite the highly-publicized allegations from
Zimbabwe, that government of President Robert Mugabe had not raised
the matter with either the U.S. embassy in Harare or with officials
in Washington.
There were similar comments earlier from Secretary of State Colin
Powell who told a Congressional hearing U.S. officials knew nothing
about the plane other than what they had heard in media accounts.
Mr. Powell also said under questioning that despite its strong
political differences with Mr. Mugabe, the United States has no
policy of "regime change"
with regard to Zimbabwe. "We have no intention of going in and
displacing President Mugabe. But are we disappointed in his leadership?
Do we speak critically of his leadership? Yes, we do. And I have
been for the three years that I've been Secretary, and think we all
should," he said.
The Bush administration last week tightened its targeted sanctions
against Mr.
Mugabe and close associates, adding seven Zimbabwean companies
linked to senior government officials to a list of firms whose U.S.
assets, if any, are to be frozen.
The State Department said the sanctions target only those responsible
for Zimbabwe's political crisis and not ordinary citizens. It urged
the Mugabe government to "abandon political repression" and engage
in meaningful dialogue with the opposition.
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