SGII and Mercs

> Peter Mancini wrote:

Which is why the Royal Australian Air Force is the proud possessor of 2

Looks like the headlines are providing us with all sorts of neat stuff for
scenarios. Search any news site (you can use Yahoo or Altavista or some other
useful site) for "Sandline International", the news concerns the activities of
a British mercenary group that has been involved in Papua New Guinea on a
cadre and arms deal. Apparently they were under the impression they were
within the bounds of the law but it looks like that they might not have been
and the Blair government is in full coverup mode! I don't
have many details, I only heard about it on NPR/BBC on the way into work
this morning. I've read some news on international sites and the details I
have read are tantilizing. I am going to do some more research as it will help
codify some strategic rules for Mercs. I am working on a Merc
mini-campaign to run this summer at my club using SGII and this will
impact it.

--Pete

I tried to do some websearch on this stuff (Sandline) and came up with a LOT
of various stuff, from all sides (I think). This is a real mess, worthy of a
Fred Forsythe novel. Beth has a better grasp on it than I do, but I'll add my
2cc:

Sandline Intl, a merc/security corporation was in PNG to train the PNG
military, cadre duty essentially, and possibly help against the insurgency in
Bougainville. They subcontracted to the South Africa branch of Executive
Outcomes, a "British mercenary corporation" (unknown web site). There was
also a lot of flak (pardon) about 4 copters, 2 Mi-24 Hinds & 2 Mi-7
Hips, that
Sandline/Exec was going to sell to the PNG gov't.  Apparently these
whirlybirds were REAL close to their useful lifetimes. Apparently a qualified
mechanic gave them 6 months, 12 at the outside with lots of maintenance and
repair. These things had apparently seen action in Angola and Sierra Leone,
and somebody was trying to foist them off on the PNGs for a lot of money.

On a related note, does anybody know of any books or sources (reliable) that
detail mercenary operations postWW2? This whole business is fascinating, as
most people, media or otherwise, here in the States treat this as if it were
from a technothriller, but don't seem to realize that this actually goes on.
Anything publications here that involve mercs usually end up in the 'Men's
Adventure' section.

G'day, I'm a bit rusty on Sandline, but its activities were BIG news down here
in OZ last year (or year before? Can't remember exactly when). Basically (as
far as I can remember and I may have this a little messed up) the PNG
government shelled out quite a large sum of money (approx. 20 million plus
from a fairly poor govt) to Sandline to clear up separatists on
Bougainville Is. - which had been at war with PNG (trying to get
independence) for sometime. Basically the island has some big mines/ore
deposits on it so the PNG really wanted peace so they could get on with it (as
the mines are developed by large foreign investors e.g. BHP Aust. which
won't send their workers into the area until its non-threatening again
as a few Oz miners had been killed before). Officially the merc.s weren't
supposed to get into action, but just help/teach/provide support for the
PNG soldiers. However the **** hit the fan when Sandline organised (in advance
of any action) for helicopters and private hospital care in Cairns (north
Queensland Australia) "just in case" and this raised questions as
=
foreign merc. asking to bring wounded into Australian hsopitals (head of state
govt then declares this won't happen even thought its beyond he's field of
influence). Short while later the head of the PNG military (General Singirok I
think he was called) announces that govt is doing illegal things (e.g. mercs
were actually there to take out the Bougainville resistance army leaders) and
that he and the miliatry will have nothing to do with. There were riots (OK so
looting etc. are fairly common in PNG anyway, so not as shocking as riots in
central London say) and a VERY tense situation (e.g. army guy got sacked and
charged with mutiny, but he remained in place and his followers wouldn't let
the govt reps into the
barracks to get him, troops tried to get into the armoury etc. - luckily
enough the officers involved were level headed and bloodshed was avoided).
Aust. govt siezed all equipment (planes etc) purchased by Sandline in Oz for
the PNG op. (mind you what they said had been bought cost < than what had been
spent and so there was some question as to what they were hiding which made up
the difference) and also threatened to stop OZ aid schemes to PNG (quite a
large% of Oz foreign aid goes to PNG and the PNG depends on it) until the
mercs were out. Sandline went home (with the money). There were a number of
parlimentary inquires and the PNG PM (Sir Julius Chan) lost his seat BIG time
in next election (which was brought on by the scandal). The head of the PNG
military did end up out of a job in the end as he got done on "fire arms
charges" (i.e. having a pistol in his house) after he'd been a witness in one
of the VERY damaging inquires. Major scandal kind of stuff (especially if you
were in Queensland at the time
-
as Oz media flocked to it like moths to a flame, one network went so far as to
send high profile host to interview "his mate the PNG PM" so they're get the
big ratings, but Oz public did get a balanced view from the single ABC
correspondent who actually lives in PNG). Just a few other salient points. 1)
At the time there was some question as to whether or not Aust. troops would
get involved, but our govt denied that any Oz troops would go to
Bougainville - they had been peace keepers there in past, and Oz troops
had gone to Fiji when a coup occurred there, but the govt. ruled it out this
time as no foreign nationals needed to be evacuated. 2) It happened before the
Blair govt was elected so I'm not sure what kind of cover up they're been in.
3) I think Sandline is headed up by some ex-Guard brits but its actually
based in Africa (something about being illegal to run Merc.s off Brit soil I
think). 4) The BRA (Bougainville army) signed a peace deal last week and their
is
currently a cease fire in place with OZ troops there as non-armed
observers
(mind you the ex-head of the BRA reckons he'll still shoot to kill, but
the current leaders of the BRA are saying that's crap). 5) When going thru'
old news reports I think you'll find those by the ABC will be closest to the
mark.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Beth

> At 13:48 7/05/98 -0400, you wrote:

The April '98 issue of Command magazine has a 3 page article on Bougainville
Sandline, etc. I also noted the possible SG scenarios this suggested.