 | |
| Company type | Private militarysecurity firm |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private military and security contractor |
| Founded | 1989 2020 (re-established) |
| Founder | Eeben Barlow |
Area served | Africa (Angola &Sierra Leone) |
| Products | Providing military combat forces including personnel and equipment, law enforcement and training, logistics, close quarter training, and security services |
| Services | Security management, full-servicerisk management consulting |
Number of employees | 2,000+[1] |
| Website | https://www.executiveoutcomes.com |
Executive Outcomes is aprivate military company (PMC) founded in South Africa in 1989 byEeben Barlow, a formerlieutenant-colonel of theSouth African Defence Force. It later became part of the South African-basedholding company Strategic Resource Corporation.[2] The company was reestablished in 2020.[3]
In 1989, following the conclusion of theSouth African Border War inAngola andNamibia, theapartheid government was looking at broad cuts in itsmilitary personnel. This initial drawdown accelerated rapidly as the apartheid system was dismantled in the early 1990s.African National Congress leaderNelson Mandela demanded that then South African PresidentFrederik Willem de Klerk dismantle some of the South African and South West African Special Forces units such as32 Battalion andKoevoet. One of these was theCivil Cooperation Bureau (CCB), a unit that carried out covert operations which included assassinations of government opponents, and worked to bypass the United Nations apartheid sanctions by setting up overseasfront companies.
Only Koevoet, being part of theSouth West African Police (SWAPOL), was disbanded as part of independence negotiations forSouth West Africa (now Namibia). Many members of the other units, or simply former national servicemen, were recruited by Executive Outcomes (EO).
Eeben Barlow and Michael Mullen, formerly in charge of the Western European section of theCCB,[4] established Executive Outcomes (EO) in 1989. Its aim was to provide specialised covert training to Special Forces members. Barlow was also awarded a contract byDebswana to train a selected group of security officers to infiltrate and penetrate the illegal diamond dealing syndicates inBotswana. When Debswana discovered EO was training theAngolan Armed Forces (FAA), it promptly cancelled EO's contract.
"Many of Barlow's Special Forces students would later join him at EO after he started recruiting men to assist with the training of the Angolan forces," says Walter Halicki, one of Eeben's associates in the FAA.
The company also went on to recruit many of its personnel from the units PresidentF. W. De Klerk disbanded. Even former enemy fighters of theuMkhonto we Sizwe andAzanian People's Liberation Army were recruited as well since many were found out of work after their own restructuring and integration to theSouth African National Defense Force. At its peak, EO employed about 2,000 former soldiers.
Barlow registered Executive Outcomes Ltd in the UK on the insistence of theSouth African Reserve Bank. There is some confusion over this issue as a top secret British intelligence report states that "Executive Outcomes was registered in the UK in September 1993 byAnthony (Tony) Buckingham, a British businessman andSimon Mann, a former British officer".[5] Buckingham denies that he registered EO in London and consistently denies any "corporate ties" to EO.[6]
Apart from founderEeben Barlow (CEO), other senior EO personnel wereLafras Luitingh (Deputy to CEO) and Nic van der Bergh (CEO after Barlow resigned).[7][8] Senior associates includedSimon Mann,Tony Buckingham and Derek Williams who, along with Barlow and Luitingh were theexecutive officers of Ibis Air, the aircraftprocurement organisation for Executive Outcomes which was essentially their private "air force". Crause Steyl[9] was the South African-based director of Ibis Air.[10][11]
Executive Outcomes initially trained and later fought on behalf of theAngolan government againstUNITA after UNITA refused to accept the election results in 1992. This contract was awarded to the company after EO had assistedRanger Oil[12] with an equipment recovery operation in the harbour town ofSoyo. Dubbed by the South African media as an attempt to assassinate the rebel leader Dr.Jonas Savimbi, EO found itself under constant UNITA attacks where it lost three of its men. This action saw EO as being recognised by theFAA and a contract to train its forces was awarded. In a short space of time, UNITA was defeated on the battlefield and sued for peace. The Angolan government, under pressure from the UN and the US, were forced to terminate EO's contract. EO was replaced by the UN's peacekeeping force known asUNAVEM. Angola returned to war shortly thereafter.
In March 1995, the company contained an insurrection of guerrillas known as theRevolutionary United Front (RUF) inSierra Leone, regained control of the diamond fields, and forced a negotiated peace.[13]
In the case of Angola this led to a cease fire and theLusaka Protocol, which ended theAngolan Civil War – albeit only for a few years.[14] In Sierra Leone, however, the government capitulated to international pressure to have EO withdraw in favour of an ineffective peacekeeping force, allowing the RUF to rebuild andsack the capital in"Operation No Living Thing".[15]
As is characteristic of one of the first PMCs, Executive Outcomes was directly involved militarily in Angola and Sierra Leone. The company was notable in its ability to provide all aspects of a highly trained modern army to the less professional government forces of Sierra Leone and Angola. For instance, in Sierra Leone, Executive Outcomes fielded not only professional fighting men, but armour and support aircraft such as oneMi-24 Hind and twoMi-8 Hip helicopters, theBMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle andT-72 main battle tank.[16][17] These were bought from sources in the worldwide arms trade within Africa as well as Eastern Europe.[18]
Ibis Air was a partner business entity that provided EO with airborne services, includingmedevac capabilities via aBoeing 727 with the registry D2-FLZ. Ibis Air also owned a small fleet ofMiG-23 "Flogger" fighters andPilatus PC-7 turbo-prop trainers converted for thereconnaissance and ground attack capabilities usingSNEB air-to-groundrockets. It was also allowed to operateMiG-27 "Flogger"strike aircraft andSu-25 "Frogfoot"ground support aircraft that were loaned out to EO by theAngolan Air Force.[19]
Executive Outcomes had contracts withmultinational corporations such asDe Beers,Chevron,Rio Tinto Zinc andTexaco. The governments ofAngola, Sierra Leone andIndonesia were also clients.
Executive Outcomes actively encouraged the South African government to enforce a regulation of PMCs as several South African and international companies were masquerading for work under the banner of Executive Outcomes. Additionally, Executive Outcomes was actively engaged in providing input into the formulation of the bill which became known as "Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act" in 1998.
The aim of the Act was to stopmercenary activities by the dual actions of:
Executive Outcomes was duly provided with a licence stipulating that it met the requirements of the newly introduced Act.
Executive Outcomes was dissolved on 31 December 1998.
Executive Outcomes was often loosely linked with the United Kingdom private military companySandline International. In 1997 Sandline directly subcontracted Executive Outcomes for their operation inPapua New Guinea to oust therebels holding the Pangua mine onBougainville Island which led to the so-called "Sandline affair" when news of the government's intention to hire mercenaries was leaked to the Australian press.
The Commander of thePapua New Guinea Defence Force,Jerry Singirok – who reversed his support for the operation – ordered the detaining of all the mercenaries on their arrival, and forced the Prime MinisterSir Julius Chan to resign with Papua New Guinea coming close to a military coup.[2]
A UN report from July 2012 criticised the South African security company Sterling Corporate Services for assembling a "private army" in defiance of international agreements and also of Somalian sanctions.[21] The report was conducted by the UN's Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG) and revealed strong links to Executive Outcomes.[21]
In November 2020, founder Eeben Barlow stepped down from his position as chairman ofSTTEP to restart Executive Outcomes. He mentioned that part of his company's mission would now be "to expose those media and intelligence whores that thrive on lying for secret payments."[22] Barlow claimed that the decision to restart the company came at the request of "some Africa [sic] governments", which he had "little choice but to accept."[3]
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