SAS accused in plane seizure

ZIMBABWE yesterday accused Britain's SAS and the CIA of assisting alleged mercenaries who are under arrest and facing the death sentence in Harare.

The 64 men have been held since Sunday when their ageing jet transport plane landed in the Zimbabwean capital to refuel.

It was claimed that the men, who had flown from South Africa, were on their way to Equatorial Guinea where a coup is reported to have been foiled.

Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said: "They were aided by the British secret service, that is MI6, American Central Intelligence Agency and the Spanish secret service."

State TV said investigations showed the plane was linked to a South African firm known as Executive Outcomes that in the past hired mostly former apartheid-era South African soldiers for mercenary and security work across Africa.

The plane was carrying 20 South African nationals and groups of Angolans, Congolese, Namibians and one Zimbabwean carrying a South African passport.

All could face the death penalty, Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said today.

"They are going to face the severest punishment available in our statutes, including capital punishment," he said in Harare.

The crew of the Boeing 727-L100 told authorities the plane was carrying mining personnel headed for the central African nations of Congo and Burundi.

But Mr Mohadi said the plane was believed to have been hired by South African mercenaries with the assistance of British special forces.

The small west African state of Equatorial Guinea said it had arrested an advance group of 15 alleged mercenaries believed to be plotting a coup in the oil-rich country.

In London, the Foreign Office said it was aware of the allegation that SAS forces were involved with the plane.

Angolan Foreign Minister João Miranda said his government believed the men once belonged to the Buffalo Battalion, a disbanded South African army unit composed of foreign soldiers, many of them from Portuguese-speaking countries. The unit fought in Namibia and Angola in the 1970s and 1980s.

Along with the plane, Zimbabwe authorities seized what they called "military materials" including satellite telephones, radios, backpacks, hiking boots, bolt cutters and an inflatable raft. There were no reports of weapons on plane.