Document Type Master's Dissertation Author Hillary Gama, Samuel Amule hillaryg@webmail.co.za URN etd-03112010-124730 Document Title Mercenarism and the curbing of mercenary activity in Africa, 1990 to 2005 : selected case studies Degree MSS Department Political Sciences Supervisor
Advisor Name Title Prof M Hough Supervisor Keywords
- mercenary activity
- Equatorial Guinea's coup d'état
- mercenary regulation
- mercenary reinvention
- PMC
- private force
- private military company
- PSC
- soldier of fortune
- private security
- private security company
- curbing mercenarism
- corporate soldiers
- African sovereighnty
- clandestine support
Date 2009-04-18 Availability restricted Abstract This study focuses on mercenarism and the curbing of mercenary activity in Africa between 1990 and 2005. It reviews and analyses mercenary activity on the continent, starting with an historical perspective and theoretical framework and then moving on to the post-Cold War situation of contemporary mercenarism, notably the trends toward corporate mercenary activities in the form of military services by Private Military Companies (PMCs) in some African conflicts.
The study analyses the campaign against mercenarism by the international community. It has found that the current international conventions against mercenarism (the OAU Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa of 1977; Protocol 1 of 1977, Additional to the Geneva Convention of 1949; and the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries of 1989) do not respond to PMCs appropriately because the conventions were exclusively intended to curb mercenaries.
The study refers specifically to conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone to analyse the perception that mercenaries become involved in conflicts in Africa because of the desire to exploit Africa’s economic and mineral resources. A further case study investigates the involvement of South African mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea in 2004 for plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.
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Please cite as follows:
Hillary Gama, SA 2008, Mercenarism and the curbing of mercenary activity in Africa, 1990 to 2005 : selected case studies, MSS dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03112010-124730/ >
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