Mercenaries could soon be prosecuted under the about-to-be amended Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Wednesday.
”We are finalising the amendment of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act to ensure that we will be able to prosecute those people who are found to have violated that particular act by participating elsewhere in the world in areas of conflict,” Nqakula said.
Briefing reporters on progress made by the justice, crime prevention and security cluster of departments, Nqakula said a draft amendment bill would be submitted to Cabinet and piloted through Parliament soon.
”There are quite a number of them who come from police, who come from the SANDF [South African National Defence Force] who have gone to Iraq among other places to participate in what is happening there.”
While some were only security guards protecting installations, others were more involved.
”We have information that others are involved in actual fighting in the actual conflict.”
Expounding on the Bill, deputy justice minister Johnny de Lange said its drafting had been complicated.
A host of related matters had to be looked at, including the exact definition of a conflict area.
”What we have done … is looked at all the legislation pertaining to how we regulate our citizens participating outside the country, maybe in peaceful armies but also of course in conflict situations. And having reviewed that legislation we found a whole lot of loopholes or at least where the words of the legislation could have various interpretations, thus making it difficult for law enforcement … and if we go to court, making it difficult to achieve the necessary prosecution,” said De Lange.
Nqakula said the number of South Africans in Iraq and other war zones was not known, but investigations were underway.
”We don’t have numbers even to deal with the situation in Iraq. There are investigations that we have started with respect to people we know are involved in the actual fighting in Iraq and at the right time those people will be arrested and prosecuted.”
He said authorities wanted to close loopholes in the law before taking action so that they could be confident of successful prosecutions.
De Lange said South Africans wanting to serve in ”peaceful armies” abroad would have to apply for permission. Permission was only valid for as long as the army was not at war.
Nqakula and De Lange said, however, policing agencies would not be sent abroad to ”kidnap” mercenary soldiers and bring them home for prosecution.
”At some point they are going to come back to the country and we are going to deal with them when they come back,” Nqakula said. -Sapa