Samantha Weinberg, author of a biography of Bob=20 Denard, looks at the background to his latest=20
LAST Thursday, ”Colonel” Bob Denard rose from the=20 ashes of his mercenary career. Bolder and ballsier=20 than ever, he raised a finger in the air to the=20 French judicial system, political pundits and=20 keepers of the ”new world order”. With Africa=20 marching — albeit shakily — towards democracy, he=20 retook a country, captured a president and=20 installed in his place a military junta.=20
The timing may have been unexpected, but the coup=20 itself was not. When I last met Bob Denard, in a=20 Paris hotel the day after he had been given a five- year suspended sentence for his role in a failed=20 coup attempt in Benin in 1977, he was full of=20 confidence. There had been another coup in the=20 Comoros, he informed me, led by the twin sons of=20 former president Abdallah, and foiled by the=20 Comorian army and their French military advisers.=20 The Abdallahs had been imprisoned along with=20 prominent former ministers, and the populace was up=20 in arms. ”Ask the people of the Comoros what they=20 think of me now,” he bellowed. ”Don’t you think=20 they would like the Colonel back now?”=20
Denard’s continued existence as a mercenary leader=20 has always owed more to immense self-confidence=20 than to military prowess. His career is littered=20 with the corpses of failed coups: the 1977 Benin=20 debacle, when a hurried retreat resulted in cases=20 of documents detailing plans for the action being=20 left on the runway, and a comic attempt soon after=20 to invade Zaire with a hundred men on bicycles. Yet=20 the mercenaries — typically army and society drop- outs, often brutal and ill-educated — kept signing=20 up to join him. And so the myth of his power grew,=20 until he believed it himself, absolutely.=20
The Comoros had been his first great success. In=20 1975, he toppled the new president, Ahmed Abdallah,=20 and replaced him with a young revolutionary, Ali=20 Soilih. Three years later, Soilih was acting in an=20 increasingly erratic fashion — he had sacked the=20 civil service, burnt all records and turned the=20 running of the country over to teenagers with guns.=20 On being warned by his favourite witchdoctor that=20 he would be killed by a white man with a black dog,=20 he promptly ordered the slaughter of all dogs on=20 the islands. The medicine man’s prophecy turned out=20 to be true: On May 13 1978, Denard, accompanied by=20 46 men and a black alsatian dog, stormed the=20 islands at dawn, killing Soilih ”as he tried to=20
With Abdallah back in power and dependent on Denard=20 and his force to keep him there, the ”Colonel”=20 relaxed. He married a local beauty (his sixth=20 wife), built a number of homes and developed a=20 paunch. Pretoria provided the finance for the=20 mercenary-led Presidential Guard — and in return,=20 it seems most likely, used the Comoros as an=20 entrepot for the smuggling of arms to Iran. The old=20 Dog of War was content, and it was his intention to=20 stay on his island paradise for the rest of his=20
President Abdallah, however, under pressure from=20 the French and local grandees — and with the=20 spectre of a withdrawal of South African support=20 under a new regime looming large — had other=20 ideas. One evening in November1989, after he told=20 Denard that he had to leave, the president was shot=20 in an ”attempted coup”. The mercenaries cooked up=20 an implausible story, but local people placed the=20 blame firmly at the feet of their now-hated foreign=20 interlopers. A French navy flotilla was sent in=20 from nearby Mayotte (the fourth Comoro island,=20 which elected to stay French) and Denard and his=20 men left their fiefdom in a South African army=20
I first met him two years into his forced exile. He=20 limped into a fashionable Johannesburg Japanese=20 restaurant, conservatively dressed and looking for=20 all the world like a diplomat or captain of=20 industry — a far cry from the young Bordelais=20 peasant boy who had lied his way into the French=20 navy. It was only when he lowered his heavy-framed=20 spectacles to reveal piercing turquoise eyes that I=20 could sense the force of his personality. =20
Despite the fact he knew I had spent the previous=20 months on the islands researching the events=20 surrounding Abdallah’s ”mysterious death”, he=20 insisted that his verdict of accidental death was=20 the correct one. He honestly believed he could=20 convince me, purely through personal charm and=20
His house in Pretoria was comfortable, but in no=20 way ostentatious, and he always acted with perfect=20 propriety. It soon became clear, however, that he=20 was desperate to return to France.=20
He did so on February 1 1993, to stand trial for=20 Benin. In what was undoubtedly a pre-arranged deal=20 — and basking in the praise of assorted generals – – Denard received his five-year suspended sentence=20 and went to live in Bordeaux, near several of his=20 seven wives (only one divorced). =20
He founded a security company. The introduction=20 letter he sent to prospective clients began: ”When=20 a man’s name merges with history it naturally=20 leaves an echo in his contemporaries’ mind …”=20 Clearly ”the legend’s” self-belief had not dimmed.=20
Still, the audacity of his latest coup is=20 astounding. Either he is severely deluded, or has=20 decided to die on his beloved ”perfume isles” –=20 probably a bit of both. =20
Despite the best efforts of conspiracy theorists,=20 it is most likely that the funding for the coup=20 came from Comorian opposition politicians — not=20 from South Africa or France as has been suggested.=20 For France signed an agreement underwriting the=20 security of the Comoros, a deal it is now=20
And Paris won’t want Denard. He still has stories=20 to tell, of his days as a quasi-secret service=20 operative. It was to silence these tales that the=20 suspended sentence deal was struck. The Comoros=20 cannot survive in an international vacuum — they=20 rely heavily on foreign aid — and what other=20 African country will offer Denard sanctuary?=20
My guess is that Denard, 66, has waged his last=20 campaign, closing for good the chapter of major=20 mercenary intervention in Africa. But that has been=20 said before — and the phoenix is still there and=20 flapping his wings.=20
Samantha Weinberg is the author of Last of the=20 Pirates: The Search for Bob Denard (Cape)=20