Thatcher coup plot mercenaries allege torture

[emad]

Dogs of war? These men in shackles have been whipped into submission
By Raymond Whitaker in Malabo
01 September 2004

Snip from The Independent

Their wrists and feet shackled, the accused half-crawled, half-fell out of the high four-wheel-drives that had delivered them to a garish conference centre-turned courtroom in Equatorial Guinea's capital.

The flashing lights, blaring sirens and escort of camouflage-clad troops merely made the gaunt, grey crocodile of men, shuffling silently through the rain in their T-shirts, shorts and rubber sandals, seem more pathetic. If these were dogs of war, they had been whipped into submission long ago.

Since their arrest on 8 March on charges of attempting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, eight former members of South Africa's apartheid-era special forces, six Armenian air crew and five local men have been kept chained 24 hours a day in Malabo's notorious Black Beach prison.

Although their leader, Nick du Toit, faces a possible death sentence, even he must have welcomed the start of their trial last week as an escape from the uncertainty. But, yesterday, Mr du Toit and his 18 co-accused were thrust back into limbo.
More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=557071

[el_gato]

1. Boo Fucking Hoo

Mercenary Scum

[private_ryan]

2. so it's OK to torture them because

they're mercenaries?

[el_gato]

6. They should be executed

because they are mercenaries.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Have you noticed the Sudan? Congo?

The mercenaries and illegal arms traders are responsible for the genocide. What should we do with them?

Case in point

Nick du Toit, a South African accused of being part of the mercenary team facing trial in the Equatorial Guinea capital of Malabo, claims that Lady Thatcher's son wanted to purchase helicopters for Sudan. Giving evidencethis week, Mr Du Toit said: "I also sold military helicopters. Thatcher had a mining operation going in Sudan and he wanted two Mi-8 helicopters for Sudan."

Natural resources and their proceeds is one of the sources of conflict between the Sudanese government and African rebel groups. The killings of civilians and ethnic cleansing in Darfur is described by the United Nations as the "worst humanitarian disaster in the world".
more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=555541

[Judi Lynn]

3. How haughty and condescending was the material Whitaker scrawled

concerning their President Obiang. He states the man has been accused of some startling acts. He'd be better off writing what he knows to be true, even if it means a duller article.

He's actually got quite a lot to investigate concerning the matters at hand in the prisoners, if he ever gets around to it.

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick. You'd really expect a bit more professionalism from a large paper.

[LibLabUK]

4. Obiang and E. Guinea

"He states the man has been accused of some startling acts. He'd be better off writing what he knows to be true, even if it means a duller article."

Amnesty International has some pretty horrific news releases concerning Equitorial Guinea.

And whilst the consumption of rival's testicles may sound far fetched, other African dictators (Idi Amin) have done similar.

Obiang now leads one of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and anti-democratic states in the world, according to most domestic and international observers. Equatorial Guinea is now essentially a single-party state, dominated by the President's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE). All but two members of the 100-seat national parliament belong to the PDGE or are aligned with it. The opposition is severely hampered by the lack of a free press as a vehicle for their views.

<snip>

In July 2003, state-operated radio declared that the president is a God who is "in permanent contact with the Almighty" and can "kill anyone without being called to account." Equatorial Guinea is perhaps the only country in the world to have all of its presidents to date declared God.

- Wiki entry on Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. There's been plenty of accusations against Obiang

The testicles reference may be gratuitous, but he has a very bad human rights record.

See the Amnesty International index on Equatorial Guinea - it goes back far before this load of mercenaries.

Or from the farsighted New Internationalist article on Equatorial Guinea in 1996:

Propped up by a neo-colonialist struggle for influence between Spain and France as ludicrous as it is futile, one family has used violence, repression and fear to rule Equatorial Guinea as its personal fiefdom for a generation.
...
He was overthrown and executed by his own nephew, Brig-adier-General Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, in 1979. Obiang reopened the country to the West and promised an end to the endemic abuse of human rights. But in practice all power remains concentrated in the hands of the President and a few trusted members of his family and clan. As one old man put it, ‘the same dog now wears a different collar’.

Years of misrule and misappropriation of funds have left the economy – once the pride of Africa – in a state of collapse, dependent on aid hand-outs and, says informed speculation, the dividends from sanctions-busting and money-laundering.
...
Yet President Obiang appears to have found a new patron in the form of multinational oil companies: Equatorial Guinea has potentially hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of oil reserves. But commercial considerations mean such companies are even less interested in issues of human rights and corruption than foreign governments. All the signs are that much of the considerable wealth about to descend on Equatorial Guinea will be diverted away from the needs of the people and towards the pockets of the President and his clique.

http://www.newint.org/ (Look for Equatorial Guinea in the 'Mega Index')

[gratuitous]

8. For the record, I have never referred to testicles

Oops.

If the men being detained are being tortured, that's unconscionable and they should be treated humanely. That being said, after reading Archbishop Tutu's book about serving on the South African Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, it's pretty clear who we're talking about. These guys are probably among the worst and most unrepentant offenders against human rights and dignity, who operated for years and years under the color of law and acted with impunity to degrade, torture and murder fellow human beings during the apartheid regime in South Africa.

The stories Tutu relates that he heard while sitting on the commission, listening to the testimony of survivors and perpetrators alike, are haunting. Images he talked about still bother me today, and I read his book "No Future Without Forgiveness" more than two years ago.

Mr. Obiang may have much to answer for. But the fertile ground for ruthless dictatorship that spawned him was fertilized with the blood and bones of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

[dArKeR]

9. I believe the CIA/NSA/BUSH Crime Family knew and/or was involved

in this coup/murder conspiracy.