Arms issue: U.K. in touch with Pretoria

By M. S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, FEB. 3. Mr. Peter Hain, the Minister of State for African Affairs in the government of Mr. Tony Blair, has passed on the names and descriptions of three South African citizens believed to be involved in the supply of arms to the Angolan rebel movement, UNITA.

Disclosing this in a radio interview on Tuesday, Mr. Hain said that those engaged in supplying arms to UNITA in defiance of UN sanctions were in breach of international law, and had to be stopped. He declined, however, to disclose the names of the three persons whose names he had passed on to the South African government.

At a media briefing in Pretoria following talks with Mr. Aziz Pahad, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hain said that UNITA had a ``very strong network based in South Africa'' which was easy to hide. Elaborating the point, Mr. Hain also said that the problem with UNITA was that the war in Angola had become ``privatised.'' Private companies and individuals, including businessmen based in South Africa, had become involved in the bloodshed. Further, the conflict in Angola had been going on for a very long time. Many South African supporters of UNITA who had served in the old intelligence services and military are still active today, Mr. Hain noted. He added, however that European ``intelligence services'' (of a presumably more egalitarian variety) were now seeking to stop the war by targeting UNITA.

The interesting thing about Mr. Hain's revelation is not that it tells anything new, not even that is made by a British government minister, but rather its direction and emphasis. Perhaps these considerations should be seen in the context of Mr. Hain's media- friendly personal background. He grew up in Pretoria until his parents, who were opposed to apartheid, moved to Britain when Peter was 16, and he later mobilised British support for boycott of the all-white South African sporting teams. Also relevant is his present status as minister under a Prime Minister who specialises in the feel-good politics of image, public relations, and slickness.

One may well ask: only three South African citizens involved in supplying arms to UNITA? Indeed, far more detailed accounts, including the names of persons thus involved have appeared in the worldwide and South African media alike over the years. South African government spokespersons have, in fact, routinely admitted that private individuals have been involved in such illegal activities - flying arms and materiel into UNITA- held areas in Angola - only arguing that the country simply could not feasibly check and prevent all such illegal flights operating out of small airports close to the northern border. Indeed, such explanations have never held much clout with Angolan authorities.

Even the ``privatisation of the security business'' - the common euphemism used for mercenary activities - is not exactly a new phenomenon. Indeed, seminars and studies about this phenomenon conducted and published under the aegis of security think tanks - some of whose personnel were once part of the apartheid military establishment - are one of the long-profitable byproducts of this business.

Mr. Hain conceded Tuesday morning that citizens of other nationalities, including British nationals, were likely involved in such illegal activities. The fact is, British involvement in mercenary activities in Angola, both official and otherwise, goes back to the earliest days of Angolan independence, when the notorious Costas Georgiou, a British national of Cypriot origin, led a multinational group of mercenaries - part of an initiative by British, American and South African intelligence groups in support of the anti-MPLA forces in Angola.

Indeed, given the imperialist tendencies of the erstwhile Anglo- American global hegemon, such interventions continue worldwide. However, while these were ostensibly intended to contain Soviet expansionism during the decades of the Cold War and were then for the most part covert, the powerful merchants of death in the world now act far more openly, for the cause of advancing the erstwhile dreams of a global village.

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Section  : International
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