Mercenaries – ZANU-PF’s militia, foreign fighters & mercenaries
Zvakanaka
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Phil Matibe | Harare Tribune
opi...@hararetribune.com Updated: July 17, 2008 12:57
ZANU-PF militia. foreign fighters? mercenaries?
Photo: Phil Matibe
see photo at http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jul18_2008.html
If recent eyewitness and newspaper reports about the existence of
foreign fighters spearheading attacks against unarmed civilians in
Zimbabwe are accurate and true, then the military junta has violated yet
another United Nations Convention. It opens the Pandora’s Box into the
underworld of guns for hire, warlords and war criminals.
Major Protrais Mpiranya, the fugitive Commander of the Rwandese
Presidential Guard Battalion at the time of the genocide in 1994, is
reported to be living in Zimbabwe. Did he bring the feared Interahamwe
and FDLR fighters, purveyors of genocide, with him?
Scrutinising the above photograph of the more than 10 years old FJ70
Toyota Land cruiser, fitted with the wrong radial tyres for a four wheel
driven vehicle, patrolling the streets of Harare, reveals the state of
the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and it’s fighting capability. The
obvious unprofessional casual posture of the men in this particular unit
is disturbing and poses a question as to their level of discipline.
The soft-skinned vehicle, amateurishly retrofitted for anti-civilian
militia purposes, has no practical application in an infantry unit on a
modern battlefield. Note the platform on which soldier A is standing.
Further observance of the above picture reveals that this mysterious
unit is clad in new army fatigues. An ominous sign indeed, a unit
comprised of men wearing new battle dress in the middle of the year.
The ZNA only issues new uniforms during initial recruitment or the
beginning of the year; this is not January and these men are definitely
not recruits. None of the soldiers pictured above are wearing berets,
unit or rank insignia and yet are carrying high velocity AK 47 assault
rifles in an urban area.
Soldier B is wearing non-army issue sunglasses and is sporting a crude
moustache. He is dangerously sitting on the backrest with his brand new
boots perched on the seat. Facial hair is against uniform code and
regulations, therefore not permitted in the ZNA except for Special
Forces on deployment. Soldiers C and D have obviously concealed their
faces but note their clasped hands, an indication of a cold winter day.
The carelessly unsecured AK 47’s on their laps demonstrates the absence
of a palpable threat; these men are clearly on an offensive operation
against unarmed civilians.
From the above synopsis and other military faux pas that this picture
reveals, it would be reasonable to conclude that these men are foreign
fighters or inadequately trained and poorly disciplined militias merely
clad in ZNA uniforms.
The United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 44/34, “The
International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and
Training of Mercenaries.”
Article 1 of the Convention defines a mercenary as follows:
1. A mercenary is any person who:
(a) Is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an
armed conflict;
(b) Is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the
desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a
party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of
that promised or paid to combatants of similar rank and functions in the
armed forces of that party.
A UN document in 1973 said, “The use of mercenaries by colonial and
racist regimes against the national liberation movements struggling for
their freedom and independence from the yoke of colonialism and alien
domination is considered to be a criminal act and mercenaries should
accordingly be punished as criminals.”
Fast forward to present day Zimbabwe and it is the liberation movement
of yesteryear, struggling with the democratic aspirations of its people,
which now use mercenaries to keep the masses who yearn for freedom
subjugated and oppressed. The current low- intensity conflict at play in
Zimbabwe shall soon evolve into a full-blown civil war when diplomacy
and the off again on again “talking about talks talks” fails.
Indeed if the remnants of the FDRL or Interahamwe, the African franchise
holders for genocidal warfare or any other non-Zimbabwean actors are
involved in the voter cleansing terror campaigns, then we are already at
war.
This is no longer an internal conflict but a well-planned war to protect
a dictator at all costs.
Phil Matibe
Anti-Tyranny Taskforce