Dan Roodt, Author at praag.co.za

US aided Kosovo guerilla army

American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before Nato’s bombing of Yugoslavia. The disclosure angered some European diplomats, who said this had undermined moves for a political solution to the conflict between Serbs and Albanians.

Central Intelligence Agency officers were ceasefire monitors in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, developing ties with the KLA and giving American military training manuals and field advice on fighting the Yugoslav army and Serbian police.

When the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which co-ordinated the monitoring, left Kosovo a week before airstrikes began a year ago, many of its satellite telephones and global positioning systems were secretly handed to the KLA, ensuring that guerrilla commanders could stay in touch with Nato and Washington. Several KLA leaders had the mobile phone number of General Wesley Clark, the Nato commander.

European diplomats then working for the OSCE claim it was betrayed by an American policy that made airstrikes inevitable. Some have questioned the motives and loyalties of William Walker, the American OSCE head of mission.

“The American agenda consisted of their diplomatic observers, aka the CIA, operating on completely different terms to the rest of Europe and the OSCE,” said a European envoy.

Several Americans who were directly involved in CIA activities or close to them have spoken to the makers of Moral Combat, a documentary to be broadcast on BBC2 tonight, and to The Sunday Times about their clandestine roles. Walker dismissed suggestions that he had wanted war in Kosovo, but admitted the CIA was almost certainly involved in the countdown to airstrikes.

Initially some “diplomatic observers” arrived, followed in October by a much larger group that was eventually swallowed up into the OSCE’s “Kosovo Verification Mission”.

Walker said: “Overnight we went from having a handful of people to 130 or more. Could the agency have put them in at that point? Sure they could. It’s their job. But nobody told me.”

Walker, who was nominated by Madeleine Albright, the American secretary of state, was intensely disliked by Belgrade. He had worked briefly for the United Nations in Croatia. Ten years earlier he was the American ambassador to El Salvador when Washington was helping the government there to suppress leftist rebels while supporting the contra guerrillas against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Some European diplomats in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, concluded from Walker’s background that he was inextricably linked with the CIA. The picture was muddied by the continued separation of American “diplomatic observers” from the mission. The CIA sources who have now broken their silence say the diplomatic observers were more closely connected to the agency.

“It was a CIA front, gathering intelligence on the KLA’s arms and leadership,” said one.

Another agent, who said he felt he had been “suckered in” by an organisation that has run amok in post-war Kosovo, said: “I’d tell them which hill to avoid, which wood to go behind, that sort of thing.”

The KLA has admitted its long-standing links with American and European intelligence organisations. Shaban Shala, a KLA commander now involved in attempts to destabilise majority Albanian villages beyond Kosovo’s border in Serbia proper, claimed he had met British, American and Swiss agents in northern Albania in 1996.

Belgrade has alleged the CIA also helped to arm the KLA, but this was denied by the guerrillas and agency sources.

“It was purely the Albanian diaspora helping their brothers,” said Florin Krasniqi, a New York builder and one of the KLA’s biggest financiers. He described how sniper rifles were exported from America using a loophole in federal law that allowed them to be shipped to “hunting clubs”. Armour-piercing Barratt rifles made their way to the KLA’s “hunting club” in Albania.

Agim Ceku, the KLA commander in the latter stages of the conflict, had established American contacts through his work in the Croatian army, which had been modernised with the help of Military Professional Resources Inc, an American company specialising in military training and procurement. This company’s personnel were in Kosovo, along with others from a similar company, Dyncorps, that helped in the American-backed programme for the Bosnian army.

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Deadly blast in Kosovo

Two people have been killed and 11 injured in an explosion in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, police say.

The blast struck a shopping and business area early on Monday morning. Police said they did not know the type of explosives or who was responsible.

Police and troops from Nato-led peacekeepers have sealed off the area.

Kosovo – currently part of Serbia – has been governed by the UN since 1999. Talks are due this week in New York on its final status.

Police spokesman Veton Elshani told Agence France-Presse news agency: "The blast occurred at 0210 (0010 GMT) in the business area in which some coffee shops and restaurants were still working."

One person died at the scene and another in hospital, he said.

Tension has been rising as the 90% ethnic Albanian population pursues its bid for independence from Serbia.

The ethnic Albanian leadership and a senior Serbian team will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Western nations have supported the independence plan but Serbian ally Russia has blocked it in the UN Security Council.

Serbia prefers a broad autonomy package.

The US has set a deadline of 10 December for a final decision on Kosovo’s fate but Russia rejects this.
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Beskaafdheid veroorsaak ons ondergang

Na aanleiding van 'n brief oor UNISA in Beeld van 21/9/2007 en ander UNISA-interne inligting wat ek het:

Is mense bewus van die rassistiese UNISArektor Barney Pityana se aksies, planne en aanvalle op wit werknemers van UNISA? Hoe kan iemand met so 'n duidelike publieke haat teen veral die Afrikaner so 'n belangrike pos beklee? Doen Praag iets hieraan op 'n betekenisvolle vlak, m.a.w. 'n vlak waar jy nie teen die wind blaas nie, maar 'n kans het om gehoor te word?

My opinie is dat die speekwoord "meng jou net die semels en die varke vreet jou op" hier van toepassing is. Afrikaners aanvaar maar sulke varke in hoë poste gelate; soos gewoonlik is ons te beskaafd om iets daaraan te doen.

Ek het nuus vir julle mense, hierdie beskaafdheid gaan nog ons ondergang beteken as ons nie iets drasties daaraan doen nie. Ek stel voor ons daal na varkvlak en praat varktaal met die Pityana-tipe varke van Aapstad en die res van Suid-Afrika.

As hy skreeu vir sy masjiengeweer, gee hom 'n koeël. Dis al taal wat hulle verstaan.

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Vrystaatse koshuisintegrasie skend regte

DERTIEN jaar ná die ANC-oorname in 1994 en 20 jaar ná die einde van segregasie in Suid-Afrika, verkry die debat oor “koshuisintegrasie” aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat (UV) ’n nuwe aanskyn. Immers gaan dit nie hier om kritiek jeens segregasionistiese wetgewing soos dit in die ou Suid-Afrika, die suide van Amerika en Britse kolonies in Afrika toegepas is nie, maar om die ordening van die multikulturele samelewing wat oral ter wêreld krake begin vertoon.

In hierdie kort tydjie is die Afrikaner in die naam van “transformasie” meedoënloos van alle politieke mag gestroop en word sy kulturele en selfs ekonomiese voortbestaan vandag bedreig deur die verlies van sy instellings, asook die mees radikale regstellende-aksiewetgewing wat die wêreld nog gesien het, buiten die anti-Joodse wetgewing van Nazi-Duitsland.

Is prof. Frederick Fourie (Volksblad, 29/08/07) daarom werklik eerlik as hy beweer dat die gedwonge integrasie van UV-koshuise om “opvoedkundige redes” geskied? Waarskynlik weet elke leser van dié koerant dat die saamvoeg van rasse- en taalgroepe in koshuise hoofsaaklik om politieke redes geskied en as deel van die algemene transformasieproses wat deur die ANC-bewind afgedwing word.

Die huidige koshuisreëling aan die UV het min of meer spontaan tot stand gekom waar Afrikanerstudente verkies om saam in sekere koshuise tuis te gaan en swart studente weer om saam met hul ras- en taalgenote in ander koshuise te woon.

Fourie betreur hierdie sogenaamde “enklawes”, maar kan ons in die omstandighede waar studente wat kultureel en andersins so ver van mekaar verwyder is, werklik die teenoorgestelde verwag? In ’n Europese land soos België het dit onmoontlik geblyk om blanke Christenstudente wat slegs ’n ander taal praat, hetsy Nederlands of Frans, aan dieselfde universiteit te akkommodeer. Daarom het die voorheen tweetalige Katolieke Universiteit Leuven van 1972 af in twee verdeel en bestaan daar vandag twee afsonderlike universiteite net enkele kilometer van mekaar.

Die internasionale ervaring is juis dat taal- en kultuurgroepe hul eie opvoedkundige instellings verkies en dat gedwonge assosiasie, veral waar een groep politiek of kultureel oorheers, as irriterend en selfs verdrukkend beskou word.

Die Marxistiese navorser van Wits Irma du Plessis gaan selfs verder as Fourie in haar pleidooi vir gedwonge integrasie deur ’n striemende aanval op prof. Danie Goosen van die FAK te doen en te beweer dat die pleidooi vir kultuurkoshuise aan die UV neerkom op “die logika van apartheid en Afrikaner-nasionalisme”.

Hierdie amalgaam wat so tipies van die agtergehaalde Engels-linkse denke in ons land is, doen Rip-van-Winkelagtig aan, asof 1994 nooit gebeur het nie.

Om vandag te argumenteer asof die toestande van 20 of 30 jaar gelede nog geld, is om ’n agterhoedestryd te veg. Nêrens erken die voorstanders van gedwonge integrasie en sy meer radikale broer, transformasie, dat die multikulturele model in vele lande ter wêreld ernstige probleme ondervind nie.

Sedert die Sweedse ekonoom Gunnar Myrdal die eerste keer die gedagte van die “smeltkroes” in sy boek An American Dilemma (1944) gepropageer het, is die meeste van sy aannames foutief bewys.
Onderliggend aan Fourie se pleidooi vir “diversiteit” in koshuise is Myrdal se beroemde uitspraak dat blanke diskriminasie die oorsaak van swart mislukking is, wat deur rasse-integrasie reggestel moet word: “Blanke vooroordeel en diskriminasie hou die Neger se lewenstandaard, asook standaarde van gesondheid, opvoeding, maniere en sedes laag. Op sy beurt ondersteun dit weer blanke vooroordeel. Blanke vooroordeel en Negerstandaarde ‘veroorsaak’ mekaar dus onderling.”

Ongeag Myrdal se wêreldvreemde aannames oor rasseverhoudinge en swart prestasie wat deur gedwonge integrasie vanself sou verbeter, moet Afrikaner-magteloosheid en die gevaar wat die meerderheidskultuur, Engels, vir Afrikaans inhou, in ag geneem word as belangrike kwessies by koshuisintegrasie.

Wat ek elders, in navolging van die Keniaan Ali Mazrui, die “Afro-Saksiese” kultuur genoem het, is vandag die dominante kultuur van ons land.

Afrikaans en Afrikanerkultuur verteenwoordig die minderheidskultuur wat wesentlik deur die oorweldigende Afro-Saksiese kultuur van Afro-Amerikaners en die verengelsde elites van Afrika bedreig word. Een van die uitwerkinge van koshuisintegrasie sal wees dat hierdie Afro-Saksiese kultuur die minderheidskultuur sal verdring en dat die resultaat dus nie “meer diversiteit” sal wees nie, maar minder.

Dit is een van die paradokse wat voorstanders van “diversiteit” nie begryp nie: Om alle kulture deur ’n worsmasjien te jaag, produseer nie verskeidenheid nie, maar eenselwigheid. Pleks van multikultuur het ons dan monokultuur. Koshuisintegrasie gaan in dié verband maar net nog ’n stap in die rigting van die totale verengelsing van die UV wees. Ontwortel uit die koshuise, sal Afrikaans net verder as kampustaal kwyn en uiteindelik verdwyn. Sosiolinguïste noem Engels die killer language wat Afrikaans outomaties in ’n multikulturele situasie gaan verdring.

In Fourie se argument dat ’n student aan die UV noodwendig ’n mate van onvryheid aanvaar en moet verduur, skuil ’n totalitêre logika wat indruis teen die demokratiese etos, ten minste in sy Westerse opvatting. Gegewe die feit dat ons regering Zimbabwe as ’n demokrasie beskou en ook by herhaling die Mugabe-bewind as sodanig getipeer het, kan dit wees dat die opvatting van Afro-demokrasie nou in ons land en ook aan die UV geld. In so ’n geval mag dit wees dat Fourie die “noodwendige onvryheid” van assosiasie met sy universiteit as normaal beskou, maar ek meen die meeste Afrikaners, asook die meeste Westerlinge, sal dit verwerp.

Die Westerse begrip van vryheid berus op die selfbeskikkingsreg van die individu en by uitbreiding dié van die kultuurgroep of volk waartoe hy behoort. Daar kan geen situasie wees waar ’n student sy reg op vrye assosasie “prysgee” die dag as hy met die UV assosieer deur ’n inskrywingsvorm in te vul nie. Wat word dan van akademiese vryheid? Het hy nie deur die inskrywingsvorm te teken ook sy reg op vrye meningsuiting weggeteken nie?

Vryheid as selfbeskikking is terug te voer na die denke van Immanuel Kant. Artikel 235 van ons Grondwet waarborg ook ons selfbeskikking as kultuurgroep en as volk. Interessant is dat dié artikel insgelyks deur adv. Pelser opgehaal is tydens die onlangse hofsaak rakende die Pretoriase naamsverandering.

Eie aan koshuisintegrasie is ook naamsveranderings van sodanige koshuise. Immers wil Afro-Saksiese studente nie in koshuise woon met Afrikaanse name nie. Die stelselmatige vervreemding van die Afrikaner se kultuurerfenis druis in teen sowel artikel 235 van ons Grondwet as teen internasionale norme, soos vervat in die Internasionale Konvensie oor Ekonomiese, Sosiale en Kultuurregte (1966). Die eerste artikel van daardie konvensie, wat deur Suid-Afrika onderteken en bekragtig is, bepaal: “Alle volke het die reg op selfbeskikking. Ooreenkomstig daardie reg bepaal hulle vrylik hul politieke status en streef vrylik hul ekonomiese, sosiale en kulturele ontwikkeling na.” Uit hierdie oogpunt beskou, skend koshuisintegrasie die Afrikanerstudent se menseregte omdat dit hom van sy sosiale en kulturele selfbeskikking ontneem.

Indien diversiteit so aangenaam, nastrewenswaardig en verrykend is, waarom moet dit juis afgedwing word? Volgens Fourie sal die student deur sy gedwonge assosiasie met kultuurvreemdes “ ’n waardering vir hierdie ryk diversiteit kan ontwikkel . . . (en sodoende) sal hy of sy dit ook in die werkplek en breër samelewing na waarde skat.”

Die teendeel mag egter bewaarheid word, dat gedwonge assosiasie lei tot diversiteitsafsku, minagting en rassehaat. Ons het gesien hoe swart en wit kinders wat heen en weer tussen skole in Amerika gebus is, die vlak van skoolintegrasie oor vyftig jaar van 23% tot 17% laat daal het. Wil ons Amerikaanse rasseverhoudinge, wat deur intense spanning en agterdog gekenmerk word, as model neem en slaafs navolg deur Amerikaanse metodes op ons kampusse toe te pas?

Hierdie artikel het op 19 September 2007 in Die Volksblad verskyn.

The New Military Frontier: Africa

A US Army captain in Africa waxes philosophical. It’s like the old saying, he opines; "give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll eat forever."

Is he talking about skills-building, or community empowerment? No: Captain Joseph Cruz goes from channeling the musician Speech from the American hip-hop group Arrested Development back to his military-approved talking points: "the same can be said about military to military training and that’s why we do it."

The Delta company soldier is one of 1,800 based in Djibouti at an old French Foreign Legion base, and he is comparing lessons in small naval patrol boat tactics, approaches to counter terrorism operations, and how to use an M-16 rifle, to teaching a man to fish.

It is not just the Djiboutians who are receiving these lessons – members of the Ethiopian, Ugandan and Kenyan armed forces have also been on "fishing trips" with the US military.

Most Americans have never heard of Djibouti, and fewer can pronounce it correctly, but here – far from the bombed bridges of Baghdad and the flourishing poppy fields of Afghanistan – is the third front of the war on terrorism. As Rear Admiral Richard Hunt, the Commander of Combined Joint Taskforce-Horn of Africa (or CJT-HOA, in inimitable military style), explains: "Africa is the new frontier that we need to engage now, or we are going to end up doing it later in a very negative way."

As part of the CJT-HOA these soldiers are also building schools, digging wells and sanitizing slaughterhouses. Their work is delineated by the four Ps and the three Ds: Prevent conflict, promote regional stability, protect coalition interests and prevail against extremism in East Africa and Yemen through diplomacy, development and defense.

Amid the commemorations, tributes, and critiques that cluster around the September 11 anniversary, we should not lose sight of how the war on terrorism is militarizing Africa. With under-tapped oil reserves, vast stretches of ungoverned space, impoverished populations and pandemics of AIDS/HIV and other diseases, Africa is now on Washington’s radar screen. The National Security Strategy for the United States, 2006 says: "Africa holds growing geostrategic importance and is a high priority of this administration." But the most significant way that high priority status is being expressed is through commitments of military aid, training, troops and equipment.

The US base in Djibouti is just one plank in a new platform of military engagement in Africa. There is also the Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI), which Congress funded at $500 million over six years in 2005. There are also increased naval maneuvers in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, and establishment of a P3 Orion aerial surveillance station in Algeria.

And now, as though the Pentagon does not have enough on its plate, President George W. Bush has established United States African Command (AFRICOM) as the newest US military sphere of influence. The command brings together most of the continent (Egypt will remain under CENTCOM) for the first time, and according to President Bush it "will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy, and economic growth in Africa."

But the administration is mostly trying to define AFRICOM by what it is not:

Theresa Whelan, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs, says: "Africa Command is not going to reflect a US intent to engage kinetically in Africa. This is about prevention. This is not about fighting wars." At another point, Whelan also said "This is not about a scramble for the continent."

"We are not at war in Africa. Nor do we expect to be at war in Africa. Our embassies and AFRICOM will work in concert to keep it that way," notes Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.

Despite these reassurances, many African nations view this move with a healthy dose of skepticism. They are expressing this view by shutting their doors. AFRICOM is temporarily based in Germany, but commanders hope to make the move to the region by fall 2008. The military seems to be favoring a "lily pad" approach of small bases across West Africa and the Horn region so as to not commit significant troops or lend credence to African concerns of a US occupation. But where are these lily pads going to go?

Zambia has said no. In early September, President Levy Mwanawasa said that within the Southern African Development Community (a network of fourteen nations) "none of us is interested" in hosting the command. The South Africa Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has refused to meet with US General William "Kip" Ward, who will command AFRICOM. Lekota said recently, "Africa has to avoid the presence of foreign forces on her soil."

But, some countries are viewing AFRICOM as an opportunity. The United States has already secured access agreements with Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Gabon and Namibia. And the United States’ close ally Liberia has aggressively promoted of the Command. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf penned a widely cited and circulated op-ed for AllAfrica.Com that hyped the Command as an opportunity for African nations. She has lobbied hard for AFRICOM to come to Liberia. The United States is also looking at Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Djibouti, and Ethiopia as possible locations.

In case none of these options work out, the Navy has a novel (and very expensive) idea to forgo land completely and house AFRICOM on a high-tech joint command and control ship that would circumnavigate the region.

Even as these discussions continue, some African nations are receiving significant increases in military aid and weapons sales; most of these increases have gone to oil-rich nations and compliant states where the US military seeks a strategic toehold. The Center for Defense Information recently completed "US Arms Exports and Military Assistance in the "Global War on Terror;" an analysis of increases in military aid since September 11, 2001. The report compares the military aid and weapons sales in the five-year leading up to 2001 and the five years since.

For example: since September 11, Kenya, which the State Department describes as a "frontline state" in the war on terrorism, has received eight times more military aid than in the preceding five years.

Djibouti, which has opened its territory to US forces, received forty times more military aid, and an eightfold increase in the value of weapons transfers.

Oil-rich Algeria, where the surveillance equipment is based, has received ten times more aid and a warm embrace from Washington.

Nigeria, the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States, is slated to receive $1.35 million in Foreign Military Financing for 2008 despite persistent human rights abuses.

Mali is described as an "active partner in the war against terrorism" by the State Department and is a good example of a little military aid going a long way. The desert nation is slated to receive just $250,000 in International Military Education and Training (IMET funding) and no Foreign Military Financing in 2008. But, Mali participates in both the Regional Defense Counter Terrorism Fellowship Program and the Anti-terrorism Assistance program, receiving additional funding through these programs. Aid comes in other forms too. Just this week, a US C-130 military transport plane dropped food aid to Malian soldiers as they pursued armed members of the Tuareg ethnic group. This sort of assistance is not documented or quantified in any ledger or report but – if repeated regularly – could significantly increase the Malian military’s capabilities.

US arms sales to Ethiopia, which has one of Africa’s largest armies, have roughly doubled and military aid has increased two and a half times. But the nation has not received military Humvees since 2002, when it used them against its own people. During protests following the May 2002 elections, the Ethiopian military fired on crowds from the Humvees, killing 85 people. The US sold the Humvees to Ethiopia for counterterrorism operations. Will the other military assistance Ethiopia receives be similarly abused?

It is always heartening (and non-threatening) to hear soldiers speaking of their mission in altruistic terms. "The hope is to prevent another Iraq or Afghanistan by giving back," says John Harris, commander Command Senior Enlisted Leader of CJT-HOA. But, the soldiers are not there to make friends. The base had been used twice to launch incursions into Somalia (without the permission or even knowledge of the Djiboutian government).

Richard Lugar (R-IN), one of the wise men in the Senate, commented during an AFRICOM hearing that the Pentagon enjoys far greater resources than the State Department. He observed, "This imbalance within our own structure will be reflected in AFRICOM initially – hopefully not perpetually." There is no indication that humanitarian investments will outpace military contributions any time soon – especially when the justification for aid remains the war on terrorism.

The Congressional Research Service’s latest accounting of the Global War on Terrorism, of which AFRICOM would be a part, puts the cost at $611 billion since 2001, not including additional recent requests of $147 billion and another $50 billion.

For less than that $808 billion spent in the last six years, we could provide universal primary education, reduce infant mortality by two thirds and provide universal access to potable water and not just for the United States, but also for the world. These Millennium Development Goals have languished with sporadic investment and big promises, while military solutions to problems are funded robustly.

Reexamining this imbalance seems like a crucial first step. And the battle for African hearts and minds will not be won if it’s clear that it is being waged more for the sake of US strategic interests than African needs.

Making a killing

In Nigeria, corporate commandos exchange fire with local rebels attacking an oil platform. In Afghanistan, private bodyguards help to foil yet another assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai. In Colombia, a contracted pilot comes under fire from guerrillas while spraying coca fields with pesticides. On the border between Iraq and Iran, privately owned Apache helicopters deliver US special forces to a covert operation.

This is a snapshot of a working day in the burgeoning world of private military companies, arguably the fastest-growing industry in the global economy. The sector is now worth up to $120bn annually with operations in at least 50 countries, according to Peter Singer, a security analyst with the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"The rate of growth in the security industry has been phenomenal," says Deborah Avant, a professor of political science at UCLA. The single largest spur to this boom is the conflict in Iraq.

The workings of this industry have come under intense scrutiny this week in the angry aftermath of the killing of Iraqi civilians by the US-owned Blackwater corporation in Baghdad. The Iraqi government has demanded the North Carolina-based company is withdrawn. But with Blackwater responsible for the protection of hundreds of senior US and Iraqi officials, from the US ambassador to visiting congressional delegations, there is certainty in diplomatic and military circles that this will not happen.

The origins of these shadow armies trace back to the early 1990s and the end of the Cold War, Bob Ayers, a security expert with Chatham House in London, explains: "In the good old days of the Cold War there were two superpowers who kept a lid on everything in their respective parts of the world."

He likens the collapse of the Soviet Union to "taking the lid off a pressure cooker". What we have seen since, he says, is the rise of international dissident groups, ultranationalists and multiple threats to global security.

The new era also saw a significant reduction in the size of the standing armies, at the same time as a rise in global insecurity which increased both the availability of military expertise and the demand for it. It was a business opportunity that could not be ignored.

Now the mercenary trade comes with its own business jargon. Guns for hire come under the umbrella term of privatised military firms, with their own acronym PMFs. The industry itself has done everything it can to shed the "mercenary" tag and most companies avoid the term "military" in preference for "security". "The term mercenary is not accurate," says Mr Ayers, who argues that military personnel in defensive roles should be distinguished from soldiers of fortune.

There is nothing new about soldiers for hire, the private companies simply represent the trade in a new form. "Organised as business entities and structured along corporate lines, they mark the corporate evolution of the mercenary trade," according to Mr Singer, who was among the first to plot the worldwide explosion in the use of private military firms.

In many ways it mirrors broader trends in the world economy as countries switch from manufacturing to services and outsource functions once thought to be the preserve of the state. Iraq has become a testing ground for this burgeoning industry, creating staggering financial opportunities and equally immense ethical dilemmas.

None of the estimated 48,000 private military operatives in Iraq has been convicted of a crime and no one knows how many Iraqis have been killed by private military forces, because the US does not keep records.

According to some estimates, more than 800 private military employees have been killed in the war so far, and as many as 3,300 wounded.

These numbers are greater than the losses suffered by any single US army division and larger than the casualties suffered by the rest of the coalition put together.

A high-ranking US military commander in Iraq said: "These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There’s no authority over them, so you can’t come down on them hard when they escalate force. They shoot people."

In Abu Ghraib, all of the translators and up to half of the interrogators were reportedly private contractors.

Private soldiers are involved in all stages of war, from training and war-gaming before the invasion to delivering supplies. Camp Doha in Kuwait, the launch-pad for the invasion, was built by private contractors.

It is not just the military that has turned to the private sector, humanitarian agencies are dependent on PMFs in almost every war zone from Bosnia to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Which raises the next market the industry would like to see opened: peacekeeping. And the lobbying has already begun.

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‘Mandela’s dead’ says Bush

Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite a gaffe by US President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader’s death in a speech yesterday.

"It’s out there," said Achmat Dangor of the Nelson Mandela Foundation of Mr Bush’s comment, which received worldwide media coverage.

"All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," he said.

In a speech defending his administration’s Iraq policy, Mr Bush said former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s brutality had made it impossible to unite the country.

"I heard somebody say, ‘Where’s Mandela?’," he said.

"Well, Mandela’s dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas."

The bizarre gaffe was made in a press conference in Washington yesterday.

Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for preaching racial harmony and guiding the nation into the post-apartheid era.

References to his death – Mandela is now 89 and increasingly frail – are seen as insensitive in South Africa.

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Barney se bul

Daar is gister gewoel en gewerskaf in Barney Pityana, UNISA-rektor, se Nieu-Muckleneuk-tuin. ’n Bul is opgemerk, vasgemaak aan ’n boom. Die dier sal vanmiddag om 17:00 geslag word, as deel van Pityana se dogter se huwelikseremonie.

Pityana, wat van Xhosa-afkoms is, het skynbaar die regte prosedure gevolg om die bul in sy tuin te slag, maar van sy bure is geskok en woedend. Daar word verder gewonder wie vir die seremonie gaan betaal. Die huis (’n amptelike UNISA-woning) is onlangs geverf en opgeknap. Daar word sowat 500 gaste by die troue verwag. Wit markiestente is reeds opgerig.

Volgens ’n woordvoerder van die Dierebeskermingsvereniging (DBV) in Pretoria is die organisasie bewus van die slagting. ’n Verteenwoordiger van die DBV sal teenwoordig wees om seker te maak dat die dier nie onnodig ly nie. Hy het bevestig dat daar ’n toename in sulke seremonies in Pretoria-woongebiede is.

Pityana is al sedert 2001 rektor van UNISA. Hy het ’n regsagtergrond en spesialiseer verder in swart teologie. Hy was vroeër verbonde aan die Suid-Afrikaanse menseregtekommissie. Hy het verlede jaar die Silwer Orde van die Groot Raadgewer van die Kremetart van president Thabo Mbeki ontvang. Die vermaarde joernalis Stephen Mulholland het hom al as “aggressief en bombasties” beskryf.

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Suid-Afrika loop sy eie kernpaadjie

Buyelwa Sonjica

Suid-Afrika het besluit om voorlopig nie deel uit te maak van die VSA se projek om kernkrag te versprei en te monitor nie, aangesien die land nie sy reg wil opgee om uraan te kan verryk nie.

Buyelwa Sonjica, minister van mineraal-en energiesake, het gister tydens ’n perskonferensie na afloop van die Verenigde Nasies se Atoomkragagentskapvergadering in Wene gesê dat Suid-Afrika ’n uitnodiging ontvang het om deel uit te maak van die Globale Kernenergievennootskap, maar dit nie aanvaar het nie, aangesien so ’n stap nasionale kernkragbeleid in die wiele kan ry. Ingevolge hierdie VSA-inisiatief sal state gehelp word om kernbrandstof te bekom en hoef hulle dus nie hulle eie uraan te produseer nie. Kernkrag word sodoende versprei, maar nie die tegnologie waarmee wapens vervaardig kan word nie.

Elf lande het Sondag lede van die projek geword tydens die byeenkoms in Wene. Hulle is Australië, Bulgarye, Ghana, Hongarye, Jordanië, Kazakstan, Litaue, Pole, Roemenië, Slovenië, en Oekraïne. China, Frankryk, Japan en Rusland is reeds lede.

Sonjica glo dat om uraan uit te voer vir verrykingsdoeleindes en dit dan her in te voer nie sin maak nie. “Dit sal in konflik staan met ons nasionale beleid,” meen sy.

Will Tobey van die VSA het aanvanklik beklemtoon dat geen land gevra word om sy reg om uraan te verryk op te gee nie. Hy is verantwoordelik vir nie-proliferasie aangeleenthede in die VSA se nasionale kernveiligheidsadministrasie. Hy het egter later erken ”dat dit nie sin sal maak om beide te doen nie” – met ander woorde dat ’n land aansluit by die Globale Kernenergievennootskap en steeds voortgaan om sy eie uraan te verryk. Hy meen dit is wel voordelig vir lande om deel uit te maak van hierdie vennootskap, aangesien uraanverryking ’n baie duur proses is.

Volgens Sonjica is Suid-Afrika nou op soek na internasionale vennote wat die land in sy uraanverrykingsprogram kan bystaan.

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Afrikaners wil nie self werk nie

Net 'n enkele opmerking na aanleiding van Vlad du Plessis se brief oor hoe om die ANC se ideologiese houvas op die boere en hulle grond besit te ontkom. Die heel belangrikste ideologiese stap, naamlik dié van self werksaamheid, word nie eens genoem nie.

Dit begin nou te laat raak om van volksvreemde arbeiders ontslae te raak, want die ANC dreig om jou grond af te vat, maar die beginsel is eenvoudig. Sonder swartes het ons 'n eie eie gebied waar die meerderheid op 'n universeel aanvaarbare manier sy vryheid kan uitleef. Niemand kan dan jou grond kom afneem of terugeis nie. Dis letterlik hoe eenvoudig dit is. Ek is moeg om na al die verskonings te luister van hoe onprakties dit is. Na 5 jaar in Engeland is ek nou meer as ooit oortuig van die Afrikaner se onvermoë om self te werk soos trouens in die meeste Europese state wel gebeur.

Afrikaners wil nie regtig vry wees nie, net baas wees.

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