stakes
Mail & Guardian Reporter
THE British mercenary company which subcontracted South Africa’s Executive Outcomes to crush a rebellion on Papua New Guinea’s island province Bougainville asked for a stake in the large Panguna copper mine after its recapture, a judicial inquiry was told this week.
Counsel assisting the commission, which is probing the ill-fated contract between the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government and Sandline International – which subcontracted the South Africans – presented a letter where Sandline chief Tim Spicer outlined the offer to the PNG defence minister, according to agency reports from Australia.
It included a joint venture between the PNG government, Sandline and British-Australian mining giant RTZ-CRA to run the mine “once recovered”.
The Panguna copper mine, on Bougainville, was forced to close in 1989 after a dispute over royalties from the mine started the secessionist conflict.
Earlier, Spicer and PNG Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, who has been suspended pending the outcome of the inquiry, denied Sandline would have had any interest in the mine under the mercenary contract.
In evidence this week, Spicer told the inquiry Sandline had never shown any interest in the mine as part of negotiations for the US$36-milion contract with PNG. Executive Outcomes itself has on a number of occasions denied governments paid for services rendered by itself through mineral concessions.
The commission, chaired by Australian Judge Warwick Andrew, also received documents outlining senior PNG bureaucrats’ concerns with Sandline’s corporate links and its operating methods.
The Sandline inquiry was ordered by Chan under mounting political and military pressure after sacked army commander Jerry Singirok last month labelled the contract corrupt.