Mercenary

A mercenary is a soldier who fights, or engages in warfare primarily for private gain, usually with little regard for ideological, national or political considerations. However, when the term is used to refer to a soldier in a regular national army, it is usually considered an insult, epithet or pejorative.

Mercenary operations

It is known that mercenaries have been hired to fight in the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Many of these were ex-Eastern Bloc soldiers who had no employment opportunities after the fall of the Soviet Union.

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Private military company (PMC)

Private military companies are companies that provide logistics, manpower, and other expenditures for a military force. Their contractors are civilians authorized to accompany a force in the field.

Related Topics:
Private military companies - Logistics

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It can be argued that paramilitary forces under private control are functionally mercenaries instead of security guards or advisors. However, national governments reserve the right to strictly regulate the number, nature and armaments of such private forces and argue that providing they are not employed in frontline pro-active military activities that they are not mercenaries.

Related Topics:
Paramilitary - Security guard

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If employees of PMCs are involved in pro-active military activities they are likely to be defined as mercenaries and their employers will be called mercenary companies. Three companies which the mass media called mercenary companies in the 1990s were:

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• Executive Outcomes Angola, Sierra Leone (closed 31 December 1998)
• Sandline International, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone (closed 16 April 2004)
• Gurkha Security Guards Ltd, Sierra Leone.

In 2004 the industry was given a huge boost because PMCs were employed by the US and other coalition members to do security work in Iraq. In March 2004, four employees of the U.S. PMC Blackwater USA, who were guarding food shipments were attacked and killed in Fallujah. In the well publicised incident, the killings and subsequent desecration of the bodies were contributory cause for the Battle of Fallujah which occurred shortly after the killings.

Related Topics:
Blackwater USA - Fallujah - Battle of Fallujah

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Private military companies tend to be frowned upon by the United Nations (even so, the UN hired Executive Outcomes to do some logistic support in Africa). Nevertheless, PMCs may be useful in combatting genocides and slaughters in situations where the UN is unwilling or unable to intervene.

Related Topics:
United Nations - Genocide

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In a report on PMCs by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) released in February 2002, the FCO noted that the demand for military services from the UN and international organisations could mean that it would be cheaper to employ PMCs than to use troops from members states. However at that time, after considering the use of PMCs to support UN operations, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, decided not to do so.{{ref|BBC_UN&PMC}}

Related Topics:
Foreign and Commonwealth Office - 2002

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