Mercenaries and such

giusti

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Does anybody have any information on which countries have/currently do offer mercenaries, either through their own military or through private firms? I've done a bit of research on this on my own, but I've only been able to get so far, so I've been wondering if anyone here had any ideas. Thanks ^__^

-giusti
 

DeaconBlu

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Are you asking about national government funded mercs? I don't think so, at least not in the capacity that anybody can fly to a country and buy their army for a week or so. But then again they say every man has his price.

Are you asking about private security firms? Teams of men who'll go do 'stuff' that might require 'lethal force' in other 'places' for a price.
 

giusti

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Well I have sources of both private firms and governments providing mercenaries in Europe, especially France, but those seem to die down after about the 18th century. Asian countries also have a history, but only during WWII. It'll be hard finding a more modern source, since things have been much quieter between Europe, Asia, and the western countries since the World Wars.

Of course, this doesn't include the Middle East, but mercenaries don't have much of a point there, since everybody in the fray needs their forces for themselves, and nobody out of the fray wants to get in.

However, Africa seems like a likely source, with information as recent as 1995. And that source seems to concern Gurkha Security Guards, and the Revolutionary United Front. I'll have to check those out.

-giusti
 

JJ Cooper

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The most recent I can think of that is public and would come close to a government hiring mercenaries, would be by the Papua New Guinea Government in 1999. They hired a private military organisation called Sandline. It was exposed and cost the government big dollars and their jobs. I think Sandline have done some big jobs in Africa as well.

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Tish Davidson

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Story tonight on Marketplace on National Public Radio called Third World Export: Security Guards about non-government contractors in Iraq recruiting security employees to guard convoys, etc. from African countries. The pay, although low for the US or Europe is huge for Africa. South Africa just passed laws limiting or eliminating this practice, so the private security firms have moved on to other African nations. You can hear the story online at
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/03/26/namibia/