Government in dock over Libyan training camp

Just how much South African Government agencies knew about the illegal military camp where at least 95 Libyans were trained in the Mpumalanga Province continues to be debated by experts quoted in various media reports, notes Legalbrief. Correctional Services Minister and Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said he had previously flagged the issue of military training camps in SA, but the matter was ignored during a parliamentary debate. ‘Allowing foreigners to receive military training in SA, especially if they could possibly be tied to terrorism, seriously jeopardises the country’s territorial integrity,’ said Groenewald. According to a Saturday Star report, Martin Ewi, of the Institute for Security Studies, said the White River company had a licence to provide military-style security training and that even if this was ‘missed’ when issuing the licence and they lied about their activities, there should have been a check to see if they were compliant. ‘When you are issuing a licence to anyone, even a single individual, who is crossing the borders to come to this country on the pretext that they’re coming to get training for security services, that’s already, for me, a red flag,’ said Ewi. However, unlike other security experts, he did not believe this was a sign SA faced a terrorism threat. ‘We know the threat of terrorism has always loomed in this country but we’ve had cases that have reassured the country that the law enforcement agencies do sometimes do things at the right time, and they’ve been able to clear the threat.’ The National Prosecuting Authority's Mpumalanga spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, said the 95 men would be back in the White River Magistrate’s Court today when an Arabic translator would be present. During the court hearing it emerged that the men had applied for study visas to SA.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu claims the company training the Libyans had met the requirements of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority when it applied to become an accredited security training facility, but this was no longer the case. Advocate Sipho Mantsula, a researcher from the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, said there were many conspiracy theories about the Libyan training, but it might not necessarily be linked to terrorism. ‘It might be a lack of our immigration laws, how we handle other nationals who come in and nationals who come from war-prone areas or conflict zones. If you have a secret military camp, then it becomes a violation of the Foreign Military Assistance Act of 1998 which has clauses that define the offences people will be committing should they be found to be having secret military camps.’ Other experts said there should be ‘significant concern’ that SA was being used as a potential training hub for terrorist organisations which may pose a threat to its national security, notes the Saturday Star. Ryan Cummings, the director of analysis at Africa-focused risk management company Signal Risk, said reports of military camps in SA had been around for more than a decade and this latest one might just be the tip of the iceberg. Cummings said that in recent years more reports emerged that the terrorist organisation Isis was running training camps in SA, including a Durban-based Isis cell. ‘What happened in White River could be that our country is being exploited by criminals and extremist organisations to engage in acts of training, financing and various kinds of auxiliary activities, links to transnational crimes in terrorism. There should be a change in our domestic and foreign policy,’ said Cummings.