Re: SGII and Mercs

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:
>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
>
>
>
>