Equatorial Guinea TV to air 'mercenary' confession

Equatorial Guinea TV to air 'mercenary' confession

March 11, 2004, 20:06

Equatorial Guinea's state television plans to air a second interview in which a suspected South African mercenary confesses to involvement in a plot to topple the country's government. Executives at the station say they will show footage of Nick du Toit, the suspected mercenary, telling the foreign minister he had been paid by the US and multi-national companies to overthrow the president.

Authorities in Equatorial Guinea have presented Du Toit as the leader of what it calls an advance party of 15 mercenaries arrested on Monday and accused of plotting against the country. Diplomats have confirmed that du Toit was one of the men detained in Equatorial Guinea, a country split between volcanic islands and a mountainous jungle mainland, which is sub-Saharan Africa's third-biggest oil producer.

"I have asked for their names because we need to inform their families," Mokgethi Monaisa, the South African ambassador in Gabon, who also covers Equatorial Guinea, told reporters. "We have one name, Nick du Toit."

Defence sources in South Africa say du Toit is a former member of a South African reconnaissance unit and that he worked in Sierra Leone with Executive Outcomes, a now defunct international mercenary group. Equatorial Guinea says the 15 men it arrested are linked to a group of more than 60 suspected mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe this week and accused of involvement in a foiled plot to oust president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Obiang, who seized power from his uncle in 1979, has said foreign countries and companies had conspired to replace him with Severo Moto who heads a government-in-exile in Spain.

Equatorial Guinea's state television has already aired one interview with du Toit, which diplomats in the capital said showed him looking calm and as if he had not been maltreated. "Only he spoke. He said he was the organiser and that he worked for Severo Moto. He said he was meant to take the president away and that he belonged to a group of mercenaries," one diplomat said.

Moto has denied any involvement in the plot. - Reuters