[Previous entry: "Israel: Ethiopian women must give up families to immigrate"] [Next entry: "Arms crackdown in West Africa"]

09/04/2004:

"Mercenary allegations deal blow to S. Africa image"

PRETORIA -- Emerging from the apartheid era, South Africa seized the role of a major African peace broker and dispatched thousands of peacekeepers to quell conflicts across the continent.

But the country's reputation has taken a beating with the unraveling of an alleged coup attempt earlier this year in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, leading to the arrests of 85 people people in three countries, many of them former members of South Africa's defense forces. The case has given the impression, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that South Africa is a "cesspool of mercenaries."

Full Article : boston.com