Bob Denard
Bob Denard | |
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Other name(s) | Gilbert Bourgeaud Saïd Mustapha Mhadjou |
Born | Grayan-et-l'Hôpital,Gironde, France | 7 April 1929
Died | 13 October 2007 Paris, France | (aged 78)
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Service/ | French Navy |
Years of service | Indefinite |
Rank | De factomilitary leader of theComorosand Commander of the Presidential Guard ofAhmed Abdallah Colonel(in theComorian Armed Forces) |
Unit | 7 Independent Company(1977–1978) |
Commands | Mercenary units |
Battles/wars | First Indochina War Algerian War Katanga secession Siege of Jadotville North Yemen Civil War Simba Rebellion Operation Crevette Rhodesian Bush War Operation Azalee |
Robert Denard(bornGilbert Bourgeaud;[1]: 133 [2]7 April 1929 – 13 October 2007) was a Frenchmercenary.He served as thede factomilitary leader of theComorostwice with him first serving from 13 May 1978 to 15 December 1989 and again briefly from the 28th of September to the 5th of October in 1995. Sometimes known under the aliasesGilbert BourgeaudandSaïd Mustapha Mhadjou,he was known for having performed various jobs in support ofFrançafrique—France's sphere of influence in itsformer coloniesin Africa—forJacques Foccart,co-ordinator of PresidentCharles de Gaulle's African policy.
Having served with theFrench Navyin theAlgerian War,the ardentlyanti-communistDenard took part in theKatangasecession effort in the 1960s and subsequently operated in many African countries includingCongo,Angola,Rhodesia(todayZimbabwe), andGabon.Between 1975 and 1995, he participated in four coup attempts in theComoro Islands.It is widely believed that his adventures had the implicit support of the French state, even after the1981 electionof theFrench Socialist Partycandidate,François Mitterrand,despite moderate changes in France's policy in Africa.[3][4]
Born a Roman Catholic, Denard converted first to Judaism, then to Islam, and finally back to Catholicism again. He waspolygamouslymarried seven times, and fathered eight children. Denard had a swashbuckling, larger-than-life image as the South African journalistAl J Ventercalled him "a warrior king out of Homer" who achieved the dream of every mercenary by conquering the Comoros in 1978, which he ruled via a puppet president until 1989.[5]Venter believed Denard to be the most successful of the mercenaries in Africa, and certainly one of the best known.[5]
Early career
[edit]After having served with theFrench Navyas aQuartermasterin theFusiliers marinsduring theFirst Indochina Warand inFrench Algeria,[6][7]Denard served as a colonial policeman inMoroccofrom 1952 to 1957.[8]He worked as a demonstrator for washing machines in Paris.[9]In 1954, he was convicted of an assassination plot against Prime MinisterPierre Mendès-France,a left-wing member of theRadical-Socialist Partywho was negotiating theendof theIndochina Warand withdrawal fromMorocco,TunisiaandAlgeria,and served 14 months in prison.[3]An adamantanti-communist,Denard then took part in many anti-colonialist conflicts, simultaneously on his own behalf and on that of the French state.[4]Once he was freed from jail, he worked for theFrench secret servicesduring thewar in Algeria.[8]
He began his mercenary career, which was to span three decades, inKatanga,probably in December 1961 when he and other foreign mercenaries were brought in by the leader of the mercenaries in Katanga,Roger Faulques.Denard fought there until the secessionist movement led byMoise Tshombecollapsed in January 1963. Then, Denard and his men moved toPortuguese Angola.
In mid-1963 he was inNorth Yemen,which was then in the middle of acivil warbetween aNasseristgovernment and royalist tribesmen. The royalists were supported by the Western European andSaudi Arabiagovernments. The French and British sponsored a number of mercenaries to train the royalist volunteers in military techniques, and Denard was among those who joined theImam al-Badr,leader of the royalists.[7]
After about eighteen months Denard returned to theCongoto take employment underMoise Tshombewho was now the prime minister of the central government inLeopoldvillefrom July 1964 till October 1965 when he was dismissed by PresidentJoseph Kasa-Vubu.Denard served for two years in the Congo battling Simba rebels supporters of the late Congolese leaderPatrice Lumumba,who had been murdered in Katanga in 1961 after having been overthrown by rival politicians and severely tortured while in transit. The Simba rebels were backed by the Chinese and Cubans, includingChe Guevarawhile the central government were tacitly backed by the United States andBelgium.Denard was in charge of his own unit of French mercenaries calledles affreux(the awful ones). He became famous after rescuing civilians encircled by rebels in Stanleyville (modernKisangani).[10]Denard helped to support an attempted secessionist revolt on behalf of Tshombe by Katangan separatists in July 1966.[11]
A year later Denard sided with Katangan separatists and Belgian mercenaries led byJean Schrammeand Jerry Puren in a revolt in eastern Congo to restoreMoise Tshombeto power known as theMercenaries Revolt.The rebels were soon bottled up inBukavu.Denard was wounded in the initial rising and flew out with a group of more seriously wounded men toRhodesia.In January 1968 he invaded Katanga with a force of a hundred men on bicycles in an attempt to create a diversion for a breakout from Bukavu.
Denard was involved in mercenary activity inBiafraduring the Nigerian civil war during the late 1960s.[12]From 1968 to 1978 he was employed supporting the government inGabonand was available to carry out military actions on behalf of the French government in Africa. He may have been involved in a raid against Guinea in 1970. He was involved in a failed coup attempt inBenin(Opération Crevette,or Operation Shrimp), againstMathieu Kérékou,the president of thePeople's Republic of Benin,in 1977.[13]Although Jacques Foccart denied knowledge of the attempted coup after its failure, he did recognize that it had been backed-up byGnassingbé Eyadéma(Togo),Houphouet-Boigny(Ivory Coast),Omar Bongo(Gabon) andHassan II(Morocco), all allies of France.[13]
Denard is known to have participated in conflicts inRhodesiawith7 Independent Company, Rhodesia Regimentin 1977,Iran,Nigeria,Angola,Zaireand theComoros,the last-named nation having been subject to more than twentycoups d'étatin the past decades. For most of his career Denard had the quiet backing of France and theFrench secret servicewhich wished to maintain French influence over its ex-colonies.[9]
The Comoros
[edit]He was most active in theComoros,making four separate attempts to overthrow the government of this small island group. On orders fromJacques Foccart,he ousted the first president,Ahmed Abdallah,who had just unilaterally proclaimed the Comoros' independence on 6 July 1975. Ahmed Abdallah was replaced byAli Soilih.[citation needed]
He then failed at a coup inBeninin 1977 and carried out some operations in Rhodesia from 1977 to 1978 as part of the Rhodesian Army's short-lived French-speaking unit,7 Independent Company.[7]With the support of the Rhodesian government,[14]he returned to the Comoros with 43 men on 13 May 1978 and carried out a coup against president Ali Soilih, who had turned toward socialist policies. Soilih was killed under mysterious circumstances on 29 May 1978.[15]The official story that Soilih was "shot while trying to escape" is not generally believed.[16]Helped by Denard, Ahmed Abdallah took the presidency back. For eleven years (1978 to 1989),[7]Denard headed Abdallah's 500-strong presidential guard and had strong influence and business interests in the archipelago, marrying and converting toIslamand eventually becoming a citizen of the country. He adopted the Islamic nameSaid Mustapha Mhadjouupon his conversion.[4]
The Comoros also served as his logistic base for military operations inMozambiqueand Angola. He was then supported by Paris, as the Comoros provided France for a base to get around theembargoimposed on South Africa because of its government's policy ofapartheid.[4]Denard accumulated considerable holdings in the Comoros, composed of hotels, lands, and the presidential guard.[4]According to Xavier Renou, author of a book onprivate military contractors,Denard foresaw the transition between traditional mercenaries to contemporary private military contractors, creating a small army during his stay in the Comoros in the 1980s.[4]
1989 coup and subsequent trial
[edit]This sectionneeds additional citations forverification.(September 2016) |
In 1989, fearing a probable coup d'état, president Ahmed Abdallah signed a decree ordering the Presidential Guard, led by Denard, to disarm the armed forces. Shortly after the signing of the decree, a military officer allegedly entered president Abdallah's office and shot him, injuring Denard at the same time. A few days later, Denard agreed to leave the Comoros after meeting French businessmanJean-Yves Ollivier,and was evacuated to South Africa by French paratroopers.[7][17]
Denard then waited in theMédocregion, in France, for his trial for the murder of president Ahmed Abdallah in 1989. With his lieutenantDominique Malacrino,he had to face charges in May 1999 for his role in the 1989 coup, in which, according to the French prosecution, president Ahmed Abdallah was killed on the orders of Denard because he was about to remove Denard as head of the presidential guard. The prosecution said Ahmed Abdallah was shot on orders from Denard during a faked attack on his palace on the night of 26 November 1989. But a few days before the trial, Abdallah's family dropped their suit, and finally Denard and Dominique Malacrino were acquitted because of lack of evidence.[8]The Comoros experienced its twentieth coup attempt since independence on the day that the trial began.[18]
Afterward, presidentMohamed Taki Abdulkarimdeclared that he refused Denard's return to the Comoros.
1995 coup and subsequent trial
[edit]On the night of 27 September 1995 Denard launched a fourth coupOperation Kaskari,in the Comoros. Denard landed on the Comoros with 33 men inZodiac inflatable boatsin an attempted coup against presidentSaid Mohamed Djohar,Abdallah's successor. On 4 October, in accordance with an agreement between France and the Comoros, the French army put an end to the attempt. The French government sent an expeditionary force to capture Denard and his mercenaries. Despite having over 300 armed Comorians ready to fight and having machine gun posts set up, Denard surrendered without a shot being fired. Denard was brought back to France by the FrenchDGSEintelligence agency[citation needed]and spent ten months in a Paris jail. At his trial a number of formerGaullistpoliticians, includingCharles Pasqua,spoke on his behalf.[citation needed]
Later trials and death
[edit]In 2001, Guido Papalia, Italian attorney ofVerona,prosecuted Denard for having tried to recruit mercenaries in the far-right Italian movement (throughFranco Nerozzi) in order to make a coup against ColonelAzali Assoumani,the current president, also opposed to his return to the Comoros.
On 9 March 2006, attorney Olivier Bray asked for five years of prison for the 1995 coup d'état against Said Mohamed Djohar under the code-name "Eskazi", and sentences between one and four years for his 26 accomplices. During the three-week-long trial, Denard and his accomplices tried to convince the court that they had acted with implicit support of French authorities. Dominique Malacrino talked about the "numerous phone calls ofJacques Foccart,then responsible for the African office at theElysée palace"to Denard. Emmanuel Pochet, another suspect, declared that Denard had" support from senior officers of the special forces of theDGSE",the French external intelligence agency. Olivier Feneteau, another suspect, declared that he had belonged in the past to the" action service "of the DGSE. On 9 March, Denard's lawyer presented declarations by former president Djohar, who had stated, during an interview to Comorian newspaperKashkaziat the end of October 2005, that his security chief, Captain Rubis, a French officer that the French authorities had recommended to him, "was aware of the coup".[19]
In June 2006 Denard, who by then was suffering fromAlzheimer's,was found guilty of "belonging to a gang who conspired to commit a crime", and was given a five-year suspended jail term.[20]During the trial, the role of the French secret services in the 1995 coup against Saïd Djohar was recognized, but not deemed sufficient to discharge the mercenaries of their guilt.[21]However, the knowledge of the French authorities of the attempted coup was one of the reasons given by the Court to abstain from ordering a firm prison sentence.[21]During his trial in 2006 before theCourt of Appeal,a former head of the foreign intelligence service explicitly stated that "When special services are unable to undertake certain kinds of undercover operation, they use parallel structures. This was the case of Bob Denard."[3]In July 2007, he was sentenced by the Court of Appeal to four years in prison (three of them suspended).[22]However, he never served his sentence for health reasons.[3]
His death was announced by his sister on 14 October 2007.[23]In 2011, his story was the basis of the filmMister Bob.
Religious beliefs
[edit]Born a Catholic, Denard converted to Judaism in Morocco, then to Islam in the Comoros, and finally back to Catholicism.[24]His funeral took place at the Paris church ofSaint-François Xavier.[25]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Rosen, Fred (5 April 2005).Contract Warriors: How Mercenaries Changed History and the War on Terrorism.Alpha.
- ^"French mercenary Bob Denard dies".14 October 2007.
- ^abcdObituary: Bob Denard,BBC,14 October 2007
- ^abcdef"Bob Denard a toujours agi pour le compte de l'Etat français",interview with Xavier Renou inLe Monde,15 October 2007(in French)
- ^abVenter 2006,p. 15.
- ^Bat, Jean-Pierre."La garde présidentielle de Bob Denard: Un mercenariat à la française (1961-1989)?"[Bob Denard's presidential guard: A French-style mercenarism (1961-1989)?](PDF).Revue d'histoire(in French). 2019/1 (141).Sciences Po:143–157.
- ^abcde"L'ancien mercenaire Bob Denard est mort"[Former mercenary Bob Denard dies].Le Figaro(in French). 14 October 2007. Archived fromthe originalon 11 September 2023.
- ^abcFrançois Dominguez and Barbara Vignaux,La nébuleuse des mercenaires français,Le Monde diplomatique,August 2003.(in French)(Arabic and Portuguese translations)
- ^abJohn LichfieldBob DenardThe Independent, October 16, 2007
- ^Nicholson, Sophie (October 16, 2007)."Bob Denard: French mercenary behind several post-colonial coups".The Guardian.Archived fromthe originalon 26 November 2023.
- ^"Congo Arrests European Mercenaries",Milwaukee Sentinel,July 28, 1966, p. 2
- ^p. 217 Ventner, Al. J.Biafra's War 1967–1970Helion and Company Limited. 2015[ISBN missing]
- ^abBob Denard, chien de guerreArchivedOctober 1, 2009, at theWayback Machine,L'Humanité,4 May 1999(in French)
- ^Moorcraft, Paul L.;McLaughlin, Peter(April 2008) [1982].The Rhodesian War: A Military History.Barnsley:Pen and Sword Books.pp. 120–121.ISBN978-1-84415-694-8.
- ^"A man and his dog".Time.August 21, 1978.
- ^Hebditch, David & Connor, KenHow to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to ExecutionNew York: Skyhorse Publishing Inc. page 136.
- ^"COMOROS ISLANDS: SAID HILALI - Issue 570 dated 10/04/1993 - The Indian Ocean Newsletter".The Indian Ocean Newsletter.1993-04-10.Retrieved2017-09-17.
- ^"Comoros country profile".BBC News.2018-07-20.Retrieved2020-05-30.
- ^"Putsch aux Comores: cinq ans de prison requis contre Bob Denard".Le Monde(in French). March 9, 2006.
- ^French 'dog of war' spared jail,BBC News Online,June 20, 2006.
- ^abBob Denard est condamné à cinq ans de prison avec sursis,Le Monde(originally published on 21 June 2006, actualized on 14 October 2007).(in French)
- ^"Décès de l'ancien mercenaire Bob Denard",Agence France-Presse,October 14, 2007on-lineArchivedOctober 16, 2007, at theWayback Machine.
- ^French mercenary Bob Denard dies,BBC News, 14 October 2007.
- ^Robert Young PeltonThe World's Most Dangerous Places:5th Edition, Robert Young Pelton, Collins Reference, 2003, p. 270: "Denard has seven wives and has at various times converted to Judaism (in Morocco) and Islam (in the Comoros) and then back to Catholicism."[ISBN missing]
- ^Gabriele Adinolfi,The leave Parisian Bob Denard, in Century Italy, 19 October 2007.
Bibliography
[edit]- Samantha Weinberg:Last of the pirates; in search of Bob Denard.London, 1994.ISBN0-224-03307-7
- Christopher Othen:Katanga 1960–63; Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that Waged War on the World.London 2015ISBN0750962887
- Venter, A.J. (2006).War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars: The Modern Mercenary in Combat.New Delhi: Lancer.ISBN8170621747..
External links
[edit]- 1929 births
- 2007 deaths
- People from Gironde
- French military personnel of the First Indochina War
- French military personnel of the Algerian War
- Converts to Roman Catholicism
- Converts to Roman Catholicism from Sunni Islam
- Converts to Judaism from Christianity
- French mercenaries
- French Roman Catholics
- Comorian Roman Catholics
- French anti-communists
- Comorian military personnel
- Political history of the Comoros
- People of the Congo Crisis
- People of the Nigerian Civil War
- People from the State of Katanga
- People with Alzheimer's disease
- Foreign volunteers in the Rhodesian Security Forces
- Converts to Islam from Judaism
- Prisoners and detainees of France