April 11, 2014
The phenomenon of mercenaries has existed since the ancient times and gained its full development in the Middle Ages. In the 20th century the mercenaries participated almost in all wars and armed conflicts. During World War One the groups of mercenaries were actively used by France, Italy, during World War Two the mercenaries continued to be employed by almost all parties to the war except for the USSR. Moreover, it was that period when the institute of the mercenaries’ professional training went further, and those mercenaries could act following not the army standard but special methods.
The issue of mercenaries, or foreign fighters as we call them today, became even more topical in the end of the last century and beginning of this century. If upon completion of World War Two the humanitarian law gave a clear definition of a mercenary as a person who takes part in an armed conflict, who is not a national or a party to the conflict, then today we may speak of the change in the mercenary definition n the international law.
The institute of foreign fighters has significantly changed for the last twenty years. It has become a serious industry involving numerous recruiting agencies, training schools, transport companies, manufacturers of special gear, armament, communications means, as well as medical and recovery centers.
And here we face few types of foreign fighters. First of all they are the soldiers of fortune employed by the states in variable armed conflicts, including those carried out within the frameworks of peacekeeping operations and counter-insurgencies. Other foreign fighters are the persons recruited directly by the numerous terrorist organizations through the affiliated structures.
We have repeatedly noted proliferation of the mercenary terrorism. Contemporary international terrorist organizations pursue a mid-term goal to change the governance models in the entire sub-regions, to disintegrate states, to create new state formations.
An international terrorist invasion into Syria takes place right before our very eyes. This force scenario of the lawful government overthrowing is implemented with use of foreign fighters. That is what we call international terrorist gangs.
The Syrian armed conflict involved citizens of the CIS member-states as foreign fighters.
It is worth mentioning the trend when some foreign fighters fight in the Middle East within the terrorist groups not for money but as a hobby, that is when former service men of the special forces move to the trouble spots for training carried out in form of safari on people. Such a military safari is developing more and more. And here we see the role of some private military or security companies which are not only involved into security business but participate in counter-insurgencies. This is also facilitated by that fact that the international law almost does not regulate activity of the private security companies.
"Today just in Europe there are more 2,000 schools which under the mask of private military companies and security agencies train experts in sabotage-terrorist and information-psichologist operations. We also note activity of some non-governmental organizations which participate both in training of foreign fighters, especially in carrying out of psychological operations, and in their financing. Such NGOs very often develop their activity at the brewing stage and at the beginning of the public conflicts. We noticed stepping-up of the NGOs’ activity prior to the known events in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. At that the NGOs very often are propaganda loudspeaker and information coverage of the foreign fighters’ activity.
One of the missions of the CIS law enforcement bodies in counteracting mercenary activity used for criminal purposes is to detect persons who have been recruited by the respective structures and got special training. At that we notice departure of the Commonwealth’s citizens for training to the variable training centers both from the Commonwealth states under cover of obtaining religious education, and from the European countries where they live as refugees of the 90ies who have already become citizens of the EU countries.
The return of the foreign fighters, who have gained combat experience in the trouble spots, to the places of their residence in the territory of the Commonwealth states, their further participation in the sabotage operations aimed against the constitutional frameworks of our countries become a serious problem for the CIS member-states. Today the competent authorities of the Commonwealth states make operational and legal arrangements to counteract such a phenomenon.
Beyond any doubt, participation of the foreign fighters in the internal armed conflicts on the side of international terrorist organizations is an extremely dangerous factor which directly destabilizes the internal political situation not just in a country of an armed conflict but in the home countries of the foreign fighters as well. Disclosure and analysis of the fighters’ movement canals, creation of reliable legal tools for protection of the constitutional frameworks and state security, deep field work, formation of the mechanisms for information exchange in this field are to our opinion the fundamental tasks of counteracting terrorist use of foreign fighters.
