Mercenary

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Mercenary_II

A mercenary is a soldier who fights, or engages in warfare primarily for private gain, usually with little regard for ideological, national or political considerations. However, when the term is used to refer to a soldier in a regular national army, it is usually considered an insult, epithet or pejorative.

Mercenaries and the laws of war

Gurkhas and French Foreign Legionnaires

The two best known units in which nationals of a country serve in another nation's armed forces are the British Brigade of Gurkhas and the French Foreign Legion. Soldiers who serve in these two elite units are not mercenaries.

British Gurkhas are fully integrated soldiers of the British Army. They operate in formed units of the Brigade of Gurkhas and abide by the rules and regulations under which all British soldiers serveGurkha terms and conditions of service, (Similar rules apply for Gurkhas serving in the Indian Army.) French Foreign Legionnaires are formed units of the French Foreign Legion which is deployed and fights as an organized unit of the French Army. This means that as members of the armed forces of Britain or France they are not mercenaries under APGC77 Art 47.e and APGC77 Art 47.f.

Mercenaries and domestic law

Some countries try to stop their citizens fighting in conflicts unless they are under the control of their own armed forces:

In 2003, France criminalized mercenary activities as defined by the protocol to the Geneva convention for French citizens, permanent residents and legal entities. (Penal Code, L436-1, L436-2, L436-3, L436-4, L436-5).
In 1998 South Africa passed the "Foreign Military Assistance Act" which banned citizens, or residents, from any involvement in foreign conflicts except in humanitarian operations unless a government committee gave its approval for a deployment. In 2005 the legislation was being reviewed by the government because of South African citizens working as security guards in Iraq during the Iraq occupation and the fallout of the case against Mark Thatcher for the "possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to an alleged attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea" organized by Simon Mann.
Under United States law (the "Neutrality Act"), an American citizen who participates in an armed conflict to which the United States is neutral may be subject to criminal penalties. (In actuality, the Neutrality Act only prohibits citizens from participating in conflicts, that the U.S. is involved in, on the side of states that the government has declared war against; also, it appears to have been repealed.)
Switzerland banned its nationals from serving as mercenaries in 1927 with the one exception being the Vatican Swiss Guards.
In Austria anyone who voluntarily serves in the armed forces of another nation automatically loses his Austrian citizenship.
Great Britain passed the Foreign Enlistment Act in the late 18th century, making it illegal for British subjects to join the armed forces of any state which was at war with another state at peace with Great Britain. During the Greek War of Independence a number of British volunteers fought with the Greek rebels, which could have been illegal; however it was unclear whether the Greek rebels were a "state" for the purposes of this Act, but the law was clarified to say that they were. There was some talk of using this Act against British people who fought for the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and the FNLA in the Angolan Civil War (see above) but nothing happened.
In Italy it is illegal to recruit Italian citizens on Italian soil for fighting on behalf of a foreign government without approval by the Italian government.

Mercenary operations

It is known that mercenaries have been hired to fight in the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Many of these were ex-Eastern Bloc soldiers who had no employment opportunities after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Private military company (PMC)

Private military companies are companies that provide logistics, manpower, and other expenditures for a military force. Their contractors are civilians authorized to accompany a force in the field. Hence, the terminology "civilian contractor" is often used.

It can be argued that paramilitary forces under private control are functionally mercenaries instead of security guards or advisors. However, national governments reserve the right to strictly regulate the number, nature and armaments of such private forces and argue that providing they are not employed in frontline pro-active military activities that they are not mercenaries.

If employees of PMCs are involved in pro-active military activities they are likely to be called mercenaries in the press, and their employers will be called mercenary companies. None of them however have ever been prosecuted under the 1989 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, simply because they do not meet the criteria set forth in this Convention, or in the Geneva Accords, to have the status of mercenaries. The term "mercenary company" therefore remains solely a mass media invention. Three companies which the mass media called mercenary companies in the 1990s were:

Executive Outcomes Angola, Sierra Leone (closed 31 December 1998)
Sandline International, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone (closed 16 April 2004)
Gurkha Security Guards Ltd, Sierra Leone.

In 2004 the industry was given a huge boost because PMCs were employed by the US and other coalition members to do security work in Iraq. In March 2004, four employees of the U.S. PMC Blackwater USA, who were guarding food shipments were attacked and killed in Fallujah. In the well publicised incident, the killings and subsequent desecration of the bodies were contributory cause for the First Battle of Fallujah which occurred shortly after the killings. As noted above, although the Blackwater team was armed and (theoretically, as the events showed) prepared for (para)military operations, they did not legally constitute mercenaries, as Iraq was at that time still under the direct administration of the United States-led coalition.

Private military companies tend to be frowned upon by the United Nations (even so, the UN hired Executive Outcomes to do some logistic support in Africa). Nevertheless, PMCs may be useful in combating genocides and slaughters in situations where the UN is unwilling or unable to intervene.PMCs may be useful in combatting genocides and slaughters in situations where the UN is unwilling or unable to intervene

Privatising Protection by David Shearer in The World Today (RIIA) Published by Chatam House
Peacekeepers, Inc. by P.W. Singer in the Policy Review Published by the Hoover Institution
- Peacekeepers, Inc. by P.W. Singer in the Policy Review June 2003 this copy available at the The Brookings Institution
Dogs of Peace by Eric Pape and Michael Meyer in Newsweek International

In a report on PMCs by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) released in February 2002, the FCO noted that the demand for military services from the UN and international organizations could mean that it would be cheaper to employ PMCs than to use troops from members states. However at that time, after considering the use of PMCs to support UN operations, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, decided not to do so.Dogs of war into doves of peace BBC 11 November, 2002

Asia

During the early stage of Second Sino-Japanese War (before Pearl Harbour) America didn't want to get involved in the Asian conflict (due to a non-aggression pact with Japan), however the United States sent Claire Chennault to assist China and created the American Volunter Group (AVG) or better known as Flying Tigers. The pilot earn roughly about $600-700 per month, also Madame Chiang Kai-shek confirmed an extra $500 per shot down Japanese aircraft.

Africa

20th century

In the 20th century, mercenaries have been mostly involved in conflicts on the continent of Africa. There have been a number of unsavory incidents in the brushfire wars of Africa, some involving recruitment of naïve European and American men "looking for adventure" and thrusting them into combat situations where they would not survive to get paid.

Many of the adventurers in Africa who have been described as mercenaries were in fact ideologically motivated to support particular governments, and would not fight "for the highest bidder".

Particularly notorious mercenaries include:

Mike Hoare was involved in the Congo Crisis in the early 1960s and a Seychelles failed coup in 1978.
Bob Denard was involved in numerous African campaigns in many countries often with the covert support of France. However his particular speciality was intervening in the Comoros. The last time was in 1995, when he staged a coup which failed (the military of the French Government intervened to oust Denard).
Simon Mann was involved with Executive Outcomes ventures in Angola and Sierra Leone (see below). In 2004 he was found guilty in Zimbabwe of "attempting to buy weapons" (BBC 27 August) allegedly for a coup in Equatorial Guinea (see below).

Mercenaries fought for the Biafrans in the 4th Commando Brigade during the Nigerian Civil War, (1967-1970). Other mercenaries flew aircraft for the Biafrans. In October 1966, for example, a Royal Air Burundi DC-4M Argonaut, flown by a mercenary Heinrich Wartski also known as Henry Wharton, crashlanded in Cameroon with military supplies destined for Biafra.

In the mid-1970s John Banks, a Briton, recruited mercenaries to fight for the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the civil war that broke out when Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975. When captured, John Derek Barker's role as a leader of mercenaries in Northern Angola led the judges to send him to face the firing squad. Nine others were imprisoned. Three more were executed: American Daniel Gearhart was sentenced to death for advertising himself as a mercenary in an American newspaper; Andrew McKenzie and Costas Georgiou (the self styled "Colonel Callan"), who had both served in the British army, were sentenced to death for murder.

American Bob MacKenzie was killed in the Malal Hills in February 1995, while commanding Gurkha Security Guards (GSG) in Sierra Leone. GSG pulled out soon afterwards and was replaced by Executive Outcomes. Both were employed by the Sierra Leone government as military advisers and to train the government soldiers. It has been alleged that the firms provided soldiers who took an active part in the fighting against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

A fictional portrait of mercenary operations in the 1970s is Frederick Forsyth's book, The Dogs of War, which was set on the island of Malabo - renamed "Zangaro" in the novel - and given a platinum deposit. Since the discovery of oil there in the mid-1990s, it does not need a fictional platinum deposit for it to be of interest to financiers and mercenaries. In August 2004 there was the a plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in Malabo. Currently eight South African apartheid-era soldiers (the leader of whom is Nick du Toit), six Armenian aircrew and five local men are in Black Beach prison on the island. They are accused of being an advanced guard for a coup to place Severo Moto in power. CNN reported on August 25, that:

Defendant Nick du Toit said he was introduced to Thatcher in South Africa last year by Simon Mann, the leader of 70 men arrested in Zimbabwe in March suspected of being a group of mercenaries heading to Equatorial Guinea.

It was planned, it is alleged, by Simon Mann (a founder of Executive Outcomes) a former SAS officer. On 27 August 2004 he was found guilty in Zimbabwe of purchasing arms, allegedly for use in the plot. (He admitted trying to procure dangerous weapons, but said that they were to guard a diamond mine in DR Congo.) It is alleged that there is a paper trail from him which implicates Sir Mark Thatcher, Lord Archer and Ely Calil (a Lebanese-born oil trader).

The BBC reported in an article entitled "Q&A: Equatorial Guinea coup plot":

The BBC's Newsnight television programme saw the financial records of Simon Mann's companies showing large payments to Nick du Toit and also some $2m coming in - though the source of this funding they say is largely untraceable.

The BBC reported on 10 September 2004 that in Zimbabwe:

Mann, the British leader of a group of 67 alleged mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea has been sentenced to seven years in jail... The other passengers got 12 months in jail for breaking immigration laws while the two pilots got 16 months...The court also ordered the seizure of Mann's $3m Boeing 727 and $180,000 found on board.

Ancient Egypt

The first recorded use of mercenaries dates back to Ancient Egypt, 1500 BC, when Pharaoh Ramesses II used 11,000 mercenaries during his battles.

Mercenaries in European history

Mercenaries in the classic era

Many Greek mercenaries fought for the Persian Empire during the early classic era. For example:

Xerxes I, king of Persia, who invaded Greece in 484 BC employed Greek mercenaries. The best remembered is Demaratus, for his warning to Xerxes not to underestimate the Spartans before the Battle of Thermopylae.

In Anabasis, Xenophon recounts how Cyrus the Younger hired a large army of Greek mercenaries (the "Ten Thousand") in 401 BC to seize the throne of Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Though Cyrus' army was victorious at the Battle of Cunaxa, Cyrus himself was killed in battle and the expedition rendered moot. Stranded deep in enemy territory, the Spartan general Clearchus and most of the other Greek generals were subsequently killed by treachery. Xenophon played an instrumental role in encouraging "The Ten Thousand" Greek army to march north to the Black Sea in an epic fighting retreat.

Memnon of Rhodes (380–333 BC): was the commander of the Greek mercenaries working for the Persian King Darius III when Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded Persia in 334 BC and won the Battle of the Granicus River. Alexander also employed Greek mercenaries during his campaigns. These were men who fought for him directly and not those who fought in city-state units attached to his army.

Carthage contracted Balearic Islands shepherds as slingshooters during the Punic wars against Rome. The vast majority of the Carthaginian military - except the highest officers, the navy, and the home guard - were mercenaries.

Members of independent Thracian tribes such as the Bessi and Dii often joined the ranks of large organized armies as mercenaries.

The Sons of Mars were Italian mercenaries used by the Greek kings of Syracuse until after the Punic Wars.

In the late Roman Empire, it became increasingly difficult for Emperors and generals to raise military units from the citizenry for various reasons: lack of manpower, lack of time available for training, lack of materials, and, inevitably, political considerations. Therefore, beginning in the late 4th century, the empire often contracted whole bands of barbarians either within the legions or as autonomous foederati. The barbarians were Romanized and surviving veterans were established in areas requiring population. The Varangian Guard of the Eastern Roman Empire otherwise known as the Byzantine Empire is the best known formation made up of barbarian mercenaries. (see next section)

Mercenaries in medieval warfare

Byzantine Emperors followed the Roman practice and contracted foreigners especially for their personal corps guard called the Varangian Guard. They were chosen among war-prone peoples, of whom the Varangians (Vikings) and Anglo-Saxons were preferred. Their mission was to protect the Emperor and Empire and since they did not have links to the Greeks, they were expected to be ready to suppress rebellions. One of the most famous guards was the future king Harald III of Norway, also known as Harald Hardrada ("Hardreign") who arrived in Constantinople in 1035, was employed as a Varangian Guard. He participated in eighteen battles and became Akolythos, the commander, of the Guard before returning home in 1043. He was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 when his army was defeated by an English army commanded by King Harold Godwinson.

In Italy, the condottiero was a military chief offering his troops, the condottieri, to city-states.

During the ages of the Taifa kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, Christian knights like El Cid could fight for some Muslim ruler against his Christian or Muslim enemies.

The Almogavars originally fought for Catalonia and Aragon, but as the Catalan Company, they followed Roger de Flor in the service of the Byzantine Empire. Spanish (Catalan) and German mercenaries also had prominent role in the Serbian victory over Bulgarians in the Battle of Velbuzd 1330.

During the later middle ages, Free Companies (or Free Lances) were formed, consisting of companies of mercenary troops. Nation-states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire free companies to serve in their armies during wartime. Such companies typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments. The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries. Free Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the from of a mobilized militia. The White CompanyProject Gutenberg e-text of The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle commanded by Sir John Hawkwood is the best known English Free Company of the 14th Century. A Welshman Owain Lawgoch (Owain of the Red Hand) formed a free company and fought for the French against the English during the Hundred Years War, before being assassinated by a Scot by the name of Jon Lamb under the orders of the English Crown in 1378 during the siege of MortagneOwain Lawgoch (English:Owain of the Red Hand, French:Yvain de Galles).

Mercenaries in the modern age

Swiss mercenaries were sought after during the late 15th and early 16th centuries as being an effective fighting force, until their somewhat rigid battle formations became vulnerable to arquebuses and artillery being developed at about that period. See Swiss Guard.

It was then that the German landsknechts, colorful mercenaries with a redoubtable reputation, took over the Swiss forces' legacy and became the most formidable force of the late 15th and throughout the 16th century, being hired by all the powers in Europe and often fighting at opposite sides.

St Thomas More in his Utopia advocated the use of mercenaries in preference to citizens. The barbarian mercenaries employed by the Utopians are thought to be inspired by the Swiss mercenaries.

At approximately the same period, Niccolò Machiavelli argued against the use of mercenary armies in his masterpiece The Prince. His rationale was that since the sole motivation of mercenaries is their pay, they will not be inclined to take the kind of risks that can turn the tide of a battle, but may cost them their lives. He believed that citizens with a real attachment to their home country will be more motivated to defend it and thus make much better soldiers.

Mercenaries in popular culture

The most popular image of mercenaries brings images of the elite team of highly trained professionals who are superior in every way to soldiers in the regular military forces, thus demanding expensive fees. For the most part however, mercenaries are not neccesarily more skilled or even as skilled as their counterparts in the regular armed forces. Mercenaries may be little more than vagabonds or vagrants who are attracted to the prospect of easy cash. They may even receive hasty and inferior training and little more than room and board. Not driven by loyalty to the cause, they are usually unreliable and undisciplined. Their advantage comes from being cheap and in many cases, seen as expendable.

Like piracy, the mercenary ethos resonates with idealized adventure, mystery and danger. Examples of this are:

The novel Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth and the movie (1981) with the same name, which go into some detail about an actual if fictionalized mercenary operation in Africa in the 1960s.
The novel The Wild Geese by Daniel Carney and the movie (1978) with the same name. The plot is that a global British financial syndicate seeks to rescue the deposed leader of a central African nation. It hires a band of mercenaries to do the job.

It is interesting to note that the both titles are derived from other sources. Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war is from Julius Caesar (III.i), a play by Shakespeare. After the signing of the Treaty of Limerick (1691) the soldiers of the Irish Army who left Ireland for France took part in what is known as the Flight of the Wild Geese. Subsequently, many made a living from working as mercenaries for continental armies, the most famous of whom was Patrick Sarsfield, who, having fallen mortally wounded on a foreign field, said "If this was only for Ireland".

In science fiction, the well-known author Jerry Pournelle has written several books about science-fiction mercenaries known as Falkenberg's Legion. Also, author David Drake has written a number of books about the fictional hovercraft armored regiment Hammer's Slammers. Both series of books are brutal in their portrayal of complex low-intensity warfare despite technological advances. Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai!, part of his Childe Cycle, includes the planet Dorsai with a society structured like that of Switzerland. Like the old style swiss mercenaries who hired themseves out to the Italian states, Dorsai hire themselves out to other planets. The webcomic Schlock Mercenary follows the galactic adventures of a 31st-century mercenary company. By The Sword by Mercedes Lackey is the story of a brilliant female mercenary named Kerowyn, or just Kero, who becomes the Captain of her Company, the Skybolts. A series by Mercedes Lackey concerning mercenaries is the Vows and Honor Trilogy (The Oathbound, Oathbreakers, Oathblood). The BattleTech universe has several mercenary units, some very powerful and well-equipped. Mercenaries of the BattleTech universe were featured in several of the MechWarrior computer games.

A magazine ostensibly written for mercenary soldiers is Soldier of Fortune.

The manga Hellsing features a band of mercenaries known as The Wild Geese, named after the aforementioned Daniel Carney novel. It is unclear whether the mercenaries are intended to be the representing the same group as in the novel, though this is highly plausible, considering that their last operation was in Unganda.

The popular anime series Full Metal Panic! and its various sequels focus largely on a mercenary organization known as Mithril.

The manga and now anime series Black Lagoon focuses on mercenaries in present-day South-East Asia.

The Marvel Comics universe features many mercenary character, most notably Deadpool. Others include the Taskmaster, Agent X and Bullseye.

The 1978 Italian action film Duri a morire (Tough To Kill) concerns a group of mercenaries in an unspecified African country who turn on each other.

In the film Casablanca (1942), Rick Blaine is a former mercenary, although it is hinted that he chose sides on an ideological basis, rather than based on who would pay him the most.

The plot of the film The Warriors (1979), which was adapted from the novel by Sol Yurick is loosely based on Xenophon's Anabasis.

Tom Berenger stars as the head of a crew of mercenaries in the shoot-em up action flick/classroom drama The Substitute (1996).

The A-Team was a popular TV series about a team of benevolent mercenaries. The violence was usually "toned down" to an almost cartoonish level to make the series acceptable for prime-time viewing (everybody shoots, no one gets hit).

The television anime (cartoon) series of Area 88, portrays fictional mercenaries in a country called Asran where foreign freelance pilots of all nationalities are assembled in Area 88, an isolated air force base that houses the military's only mercenary unit to fight in Asran's civil war.

The song Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner by Warren Zevon involves the exploits of a Norwegian mercenary in the Congo.

The computer game series Jagged Alliance focuses on a team of mercenaries attempting to conquer small fictional third-world countries. In 2005, LucasArts released a game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox titled Playground of Destruction, where the player controls one of three mercenaries in North Korea, and is able to accept mercenary contracts from the UN, South Korea, China, and the Russian Mafia.

Several video games feature mercenary characters or organizations, either in a modern setting such as Playground of Destruction, the Metal Gear Solid series; or in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, such as Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife; or organization SeeD from Final Fantasy VIII, as the Star Fox Team. Players may also participate as mercenary pilots in Air Combat, Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat Zero, and the game Strike Commander features a player-run mercenary air force. In the Total War series, battalions of mercenaries can be hired at inns (in Total War 1) or in the field (in Total War).

References

UNHCHR: Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on use of mercenaries
Overcomming post-colonial myopia: A call to recognize and regulate private military companies(PDF) by Major Todd S. Milliard in Military Law Review Vol 173, June 2003. At the time of writing Milliard was the Judge Advocate, United States Army, assigned to JAG Corps

Notes

External links

PMCs Monitor: An International Organization which advocates for tighter rules
PrivateMilitary.org: a private, independent, non-profit initiative that offers people interested in Private Military Companies (PMCs) a selection of hyperlinks pointing at various firms, documents, organizations, and resources related to the PMC subject and debate. A free and open resource: no sign-in, log-in, or tracking.
CNN special on mercenaries
London Independent (Sep 2 04): How oil brought the dogs of war back to Malabo
Glasgow Herald 26 August 2004: "'Scratcher' and the battle for Guinea" by Allan Laing
CNN 25 August 2004:MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (Reuters) Nick du Toit said he was introduced to Thatcher in South Africa last year by Simon Mann
BBC 27 August 2004; Mann guilty of purchasing weapons
BBC Q&A: Equatorial Guinea coup plot
BBC Report on sentencing August 2004
Reuters: Feb 2005: South Africa to review mercenary law, targets Iraq
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