Mail & Guardian reporters A former South African army colonel accused by the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, of supplying weapons to rebels in Sierra Leone has written to the US envoy vigorously denying the claims.
The former South African Defence Force (SADF) officer, Fred Rindel, has told Holbrooke that the attack on him during a Security Council hearing into conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone on July 31 was based on “untrue” allegations and statements. During the address Holbrooke singled out Rindel as one of several foreign arms dealers participating in the war. Rindel has worked as a security adviser to Charles Taylor, the President of neighbouring Liberia, who has been widely accused of helping to shore up the Sierra Leone rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), in exchange for diamonds. Holbrooke told the Security Council: “Arms brokers have played a vital role in keeping the RUF supplied with weapons and other military material … There have been other connections between former government officials from South Africa during its apartheid regime who now operate as private individuals, including Fred Rindel, the [former] South African defence attach’ in Washington, who now works as a security consultant in Liberia and trains Liberian troops and RUF insurgents.” Rindel this week denied any involvement in the Sierra Leone war and said Holbrooke’s fingering of him was part of a long-running campaign to discredit Taylor. Both The Washington Post and Africa Confidential, a weekly London-based newsletter, have also named Rindel as a player in the Sierra Leone conflict. Rindel has been accused, among other things, of having helped train RUF rebels.
Rindel spoke about the allegations for the first time this week in an interview with the Mail & Guardian. The M&G reported in July that UN sources were accusing Rindel of having trained the RUF – allegations Rindel has also denied. “I have told him [Holbrooke] you are way out of line. This is very much a question of rubbish in and rubbish out and I am here to tell you that you made a mistake.” Rindel has offered to assist the UN “in any manner to clear my name”. Rindel quit the army in 1991 because he believed the army leadership was “conservative, mostly drunk and out of touch”. Since then he has embarked on a variety of business ventures, including aircraft and ship selling. Rindel says he has served as an adviser to Taylor only on security matters, and got the job in 1998 after having visited Liberia to investigate mining ventures and to conduct surveys of mineral deposits. He does not regret having worked for Taylor, himself a notorious warlord who has reduced Liberia to beggary. Rindel believes if Taylor were toppled, Liberia would collapse into anarchy. Rindel says he has never seen any evidence of Taylor’s involvement in the war in Sierra Leone. He says the Liberian army unit responsible for presidential security, the Anti- Terrorism Unit (ATU), consists of about 1 000 men and women and is the best-equipped branch of Liberia’s shoddy armed forces. He concedes that the ATU is not a normal security unit akin to those found in Western countries, but is rather about keeping Taylor in power. But, says Rindel, even the ATU is insufficiently equipped to contribute to the war in Sierra Leone. He says it has only a few AK-47s, no heavy armaments to speak of and no aircraft. Rindel says he has not been involved in any training of the ATU and has not employed anyone to help train the ATU, but did tell four former SADF officers to come to Liberia to work with the ATU. “I told them there were jobs out there. They have been doing nothing wrong. They have been working with the security detail. None of those guys will fight for anyone.” Taylor has battled to rebuff allegations that he has been helping the RUF. The US and Britain has threatened to impose sanctions against the Liberian president for his assistance to the Sierra Leone rebel movement.
Apart from the diamonds, there are sound logistic reasons for Liberia to assist the rebel movement. Roberts International, the main airport in the Liberian capital Monrovia, is one of the few properly equipped air strips in the region to which weapons for the RUF could be transported.
Diamond analysts say that Sierra Leone diamonds are regularly sold as Liberian produce. While the government of Sierra Leone recorded exports of only 8 500 carats in 1998, the Belgian diamond council records imports of 770 000 carats. Annual Liberian diamond mining capacity is between 100 000 and 150 000 carats, but the council recorded Liberian imports into Belgium of more than 31-million carats between 1994 and 1998 – an average of more than six million carats a year. Liberia has no significant diamond deposits of its own which have been exploited.
Rindel says he has never been involved in the diamond business in Liberia – or anywhere else in West Africa. Asked who is helping the RUF, Rindel says he has heard there are a number of South Africans working in the country, but he does not have their names. In terms of legislation passed in 1998 it is illegal for South Africans to provide military assistance to foreign powers without prior approval. Such assistance includes advice or training. Rindel says he has never read the legislation – or registered with the South African authorities – as he believed the legislation was aimed at countering mercenaries. He emphatically denies ever having engaged in mercenary activity. South African mercenaries working for Executive Outcomes helped protect the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, from attacks by the RUF in 1995. Rindel says he has offered his cooperation to the Security Council and during a recent trip to Liberia advised Taylor on all the allegations made against him. “I also voluntarily went to the South African intelligence services and brought them fully up to date.” Rindel says he has severed ties with Taylor because of the bad publicity his work in Liberia has brought him. “I know Africa better than most South Africans,” Rindel says. “I am not a conservative. I am not a liberal. I would rather classify myself as a realist.”