Zimbabwe said 64 suspected mercenaries aboard a plane...

Zimbabwe said 64 suspected mercenaries aboard a plane seized in Harare could be executed for what it claimed was a western plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. Harare claimed they had then planned to go on from west Africa to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to hand over weapons to rebels in mineral-rich Katanga province.
Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told a gathering of diplomats that those arrested in Harare - 64 men aboard the Boeing 727-100, mostly from South Africa, Namibia and Angola, and three who came to meet them - "are going to face the severest punishment available in our statutes, including capital punishment".
Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi told a news conference that Simon Mann, one of three men detained after going to meet the presumed mercenaries at Harare International Airport, had pointed out London, Washington and Madrid as their backers.
According to Mohadi, the detainee "has revealed that they (the mercenaries) were aided by the British secret service (MI6), the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Spanish secret service."
Mohadi claimed that Western intelligence services had promised cabinet posts in a new government to Equatorial Guinea's police chief and commander of the army, in exchange for their cooperation in the coup.
The new government was apparently due to be headed by opposition activist Severo Moto Nsa, who was in exile in Spain, and who tried to mount a coup against Obiang in 1997 from Angola.
On Equatorial Guinea television, a man identified as South African Nick du Toit, the leader of the alleged mercenaries arrested there, said their mission was to abduct Obiang, force him into exile and install the government in exile of Severo Moto Nsa.