Serbian Mercs in Congo

[Coop]

What's the story about the Serbien mercs, recruited by the French, fighting for Mobutu against rebels in (then) Zaire, back in 1997?

How comes they ended there in the first place?

[intrinsic]

I did hear a similar story about Croation Mercs, but they hard a hard time of it and understand not many returned home.

[Upfrontreporting]

I think it was an organisation/group of people calling themselves White Legion (how very colonial :) ), apparently a mix of ex-army and police.
Also read that one of the pilots crashed a plane due to being drunk. As far as I remember they didn't leave that great an impression on the Zaire/Congo leadership (Mobutu Sese Zeko)
Mind you this was an article I read a long time ago, so I could be wrong.



regards

[zad]

I found this on the net:

http://www.argentina-rree.com/documentos/mer-10.htm

Acording to this, based on Washingto Post article of march , 1997 and "The
Globe and Mail" a canadian newspaper, Mobut made a weapons trade with
Slodoban Milosevic to provide him with a few number of jets, mrls, weapons, uniforms and a force of serbian mercenaries, between 300 and 500 serbian mercs were send to Zaire on Yugoslavian army planes, they used french, belgium and croatian passports, they had 3 months contracts, they were paid between 3.000 $ to protect airfields to 10.000 $ for first line combat, they had a insurance for the families of 50.000 $ if death, a contract was signed with Mobutu´s agents to put Milorad Palemic a former serbian comander and war criminal (slaughers of civilians of july of 1995) on the command of a force of 1.000 mercs from Srpska republic. The first men and material arrived on january of 1997, about their acts on the field, the article just talk about the Mobutu´s army running for their lives in july of 1997, most of the mercs had flew on that point, the remain mercenaries tried to put order in the withdrawl troops, the crimes agains population on the withdrawal is mencioned on the text as one of the main factors that helped the rebels to grow in number.
The text talk too about mafia ties between Serbia and Zaire, acording to the text Jovan Hazdi-Antic a men closer to Milosevic was the owner of a diamonds mine on Zaire, the weapons was smugled using phantoms companies, ex general Jovan Cenovic would had made a false tourism egipcian company for this pourposes. An overview of the book show criticism against mercenaries in general, something petty normal in my personal opinion, this was just a traduction, not a personal research, if you don´t like it talk with Washington Post and The Globe and Mail :p

[zad]

I guess this is the original Washington Post article:
http://listserv.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9703&L=twatch-l&D=1&F=P&O=D&P=8834

[cinoeye]

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=726&d=1137298316
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=727&d=1137298363
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=728&d=1137298403

[zad]

Oh my god, he is raping that poor boy!!!!

[cinoeye]

LOl, That's Arnold!http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:gw1ZID7wCnftqM:http://www.arnold.ro/images/galerie/ga164.jpg (http://www.arnold.ro/images/galerie/ga164.jpg)http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=728&d=1137298403

[mwe]

Normal African deal for weapons, people to use them and kick backs. Serbia gets money, Zaire gets weapons and men to use them. Rather then investing in personal resources these dictators try to spend on a military only after a conflict starts and thus buy foreign troops who they then can send home after the war, provided they are still in power. They would rather rent forces for the conflict then have a domestic threat to their own power.

France seems to have hooked them up. Zaire wanted to save money and the Serbs seem to have come cheaper then South Africans. At the time the deal was starting there were already some concern about how they would act in an alien culture.

There was a lot of hope from the Zairean government over the Serb force. They were supposed to be elite troops and experts in warfare and so forth. There was a blessing from a Mr. Jovica Stanisic for picking the men and getting them to Zaire with passports. They were supposed to protect a couple airbases and provide support for the Zairean army and other mercs.

The infantry portion were well equipped with weapons flown in from Serbia which included AK-47s, MG-42s, RPG-7s, LAWs and SA-7/SA-14s. In the air there were Jasrebs crewed by Serb pilots. It does not seem they flew the MiG-21s that were bought by Zaire.

There were a lot of promises of a larger more capable air wing and more men but little came of it. The men that were sent turned out ot be rather useless and far from the experts that they talked themselves up to be. Serb pilots rarely flew into combat and when doing so rarely pressed attacks dropping bombs high up which had little effect on the ground actions. And at least one got drunk and it seems crashed his plane.

They talked up a storm but proved themselves short on combat skills and courage. But they did help turn more locals against the government through brutal treatment of the civilian population. On the ground they were hardly a match for the guerillas. Their excesses reminded people about the dark days in the 1960s.

A waste of money by a dictorship which loved to spend...

[Coop]

Thanks for your help, Blue, zad & mwe.

So, in conclusion, it could be said, they went in, caused trouble, solved nothing and came back minus one drunken pilot?

What was the French involvement in the whole story?

[Lokos]

The guy negotiates with a mafioso, hires mercenaries who were - invariably - conscripted Bosnian Serb militia during the 1991-1995 war, has them fly into Africa and then tells them to fight for... what? Money? Your allegations that these men were 'cowards' and 'poor fighters' are idiotic.

1) Why should they have elected to fight tenaciously for some tinpot African regime they'd never even heard of?

2) Conscripted militia they may have been, but, without a doubt, they were superior troops to any in the region in question.

For example:

Mobutu´s army running for their lives in july of 1997, most of the mercs had flew on that point, the remain mercenaries tried to put order in the withdrawl troops,

They should have fought on, in the face of overwhelming enemy formations? To what end? You're, essentially, saying that all mercenaries are cowards - for they participate in active combat in exchange for monetary consideration. They were not willing to lay down their lives for this African regime.

They were supposed to protect a couple airbases and provide support for the Zairean army and other mercs.


Protection of airbases and combat support. Doesn't say anything about shock troops for the regime, because its own soldiers refuse to fight for it. How does an unwillingness to take on that role translate to 'incapable fighters' or 'cowards'?

They were supposed to be elite troops and experts in warfare and so forth

Elite troops, because they participated in the Bosnian War? Come on.

On the ground they were hardly a match for the guerillas.

And I'm sure you've got plenty of AARs to show that's the case, hmm?

So, in conclusion, it could be said, they went in, caused trouble, solved nothing and came back minus one drunken pilot?


That might, actually, be a fair assessment.

Lokos

[mwe]

==== So, in conclusion, it could be said, they went in, caused trouble, solved nothing and came back minus one drunken pilot? ====

In a nutshell. +

===What was the French involvement in the whole story?== =

Helped the Zaireans meet up with the Serbians.

[shadower]

I heard on another forum french were planing to escape and live serbs but somehow their plan didn't worked as planed!

[California Joe]

Couple years ago, I read piece in “Soldier Of Fortune”… It was Serbs (higher number of them) but also Croats and some Bosnians… Mostly jet and chopper pilots, but some ground troops… Sorry, can’t remember more. I hate serbs so didn’t care to keep article or remember it.

I don't really care what your politics are genius, keep them to yourself. The ethnic animosities of the various players in the history of Balkan conflicts have been rehashed in here ad nauseum.

[lankan_tiger]

LOl, That's Arnold!http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:gw1ZID7wCnftqM:http://www.arnold.ro/images/galerie/ga164.jpg (http://www.arnold.ro/images/galerie/ga164.jpg)http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=728&d=1137298403





haha sooo truuu :lol:

[SerbPVO]

Was there ever a war or even a battle without direct or indirect Serbian involvement?
I think not.