FRANCE - COMOROS
French mercenary Bob Denard dies
Sunday, October 14, 2007
French mercenary leader Bob Denard, a self-styled "pirate of the republic" involved in African wars since the 1960s, has died.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
By Reuters
BORDEAUX, France, Oct 14 (Reuters) - French mercenary leader
Bob Denard, a self-styled "pirate of the republic" involved in
African wars since the 1960s, has died, his sister said on
Sunday.
Denard had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was
in his seventies.
"I confirm that he has died," Georgette Garnier, Denard's
sister, told Reuters. She declined to say when or where he died.
Denard was sentenced by a Paris court in July for his part
in a 1995 coup in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros.
He and others were charged with overthrowing Comoros
President Mohammed Djohar in September 1995, when they put
opposition leaders Mohammed Taki and Said-Ali Kemal in power.
The court sentenced Denard to four years in jail but ordered
three of them suspended. A separate sentencing judge was
supposed to decide whether the ailing Denard would serve time
behind bars.
The mercenaries said they had acted with the knowledge and
implicit support of the French government in the Comoros, a
former French colony.
Denard, whose colourful and sometimes violent career as a
mercenary in the Indian Ocean islands stretched back to 1975,
was one of several European "Dogs of War" to play a major role
in a series of African wars during the 1960s and 1970s.
In documents filed for the Comoros case, investigating
magistrate Baudoin Thouvenot said he believed Denard had
initiated the coup but that the French secret services, worried
by the authoritarian stance of the Comoran authorities, had
probably known about it and turned a blind eye.
Denard served in France's marines and the French colonial
police in Morocco before a high-profile career as a mercenary
during which he led ruthless, often ill-disciplined bands of
European ex-soldiers, sometimes dubbed "Les affreux" ("the
terrible ones") in wars in Yemen, Biafra and Congo.
Denard received a suspended five-year sentence in France for
his part in an abortive mercenary invasion of then Marxist-ruled
Benin in 1977, but was acquitted when tried on charges of
assassinating Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah in 1989.
He came out of apparent retirement in 1995 to help lead the
Comoros coup, one of a series of coups since the islands gained
independence from France in 1975. Denard was linked to four of
the coups.
Bob Denard, a self-styled "pirate of the republic" involved in
African wars since the 1960s, has died, his sister said on
Sunday.
Denard had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was
in his seventies.
"I confirm that he has died," Georgette Garnier, Denard's
sister, told Reuters. She declined to say when or where he died.
Denard was sentenced by a Paris court in July for his part
in a 1995 coup in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros.
He and others were charged with overthrowing Comoros
President Mohammed Djohar in September 1995, when they put
opposition leaders Mohammed Taki and Said-Ali Kemal in power.
The court sentenced Denard to four years in jail but ordered
three of them suspended. A separate sentencing judge was
supposed to decide whether the ailing Denard would serve time
behind bars.
The mercenaries said they had acted with the knowledge and
implicit support of the French government in the Comoros, a
former French colony.
Denard, whose colourful and sometimes violent career as a
mercenary in the Indian Ocean islands stretched back to 1975,
was one of several European "Dogs of War" to play a major role
in a series of African wars during the 1960s and 1970s.
In documents filed for the Comoros case, investigating
magistrate Baudoin Thouvenot said he believed Denard had
initiated the coup but that the French secret services, worried
by the authoritarian stance of the Comoran authorities, had
probably known about it and turned a blind eye.
Denard served in France's marines and the French colonial
police in Morocco before a high-profile career as a mercenary
during which he led ruthless, often ill-disciplined bands of
European ex-soldiers, sometimes dubbed "Les affreux" ("the
terrible ones") in wars in Yemen, Biafra and Congo.
Denard received a suspended five-year sentence in France for
his part in an abortive mercenary invasion of then Marxist-ruled
Benin in 1977, but was acquitted when tried on charges of
assassinating Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah in 1989.
He came out of apparent retirement in 1995 to help lead the
Comoros coup, one of a series of coups since the islands gained
independence from France in 1975. Denard was linked to four of
the coups.
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