Read an extract from My Friend the Mercenary - Bookhugger

shake hands with the devil 27
Broadcasting Corporation – the SABC. He had filmed his fair
share of the horrors that engulfed the country’s townships at the
end of apartheid: ‘necklace’ burnings, beatings and riots among
them. None of us had travelled to Liberia before. We drank beers,
and tried to imagine what might be in store for us.
I wrote two long letters to the LURD rebels (‘to whom it
may concern’), and faxed and emailed them to Sierra Leone care
of Cobus, as planned. I asked for access to their leadership, their
bases and their forward-deployed fighting forces. In return I
promised objectivity, a fair hearing and the potential for massmedia
exposure – but I was careful not to give any guarantee that
this exposure would be entirely or even partially positive. The
facts would have to speak for themselves.
Cobus took the letters to Conakry in person and saw that they
were delivered, a week later and with American endorsement,
into the hands of Sekou Conneh – the LURD’s national chairman.
Conneh replied, immediately, with an emphatic ‘Yes’ to Cobus
through intermediaries in Conakry.
I applied for the notoriously difficult Guinean visas for the
crew, and had them authorised on the spot. The production
company shipped in flak jackets from Nairobi, and cut a deal
with Cobus. Dudley and Mandla would be put onto three-week
paid contracts. There would be no fee for me for going to Liberia.
I was kept on the books with a modest retainer; the only money
I might receive for going would be a share of profits after future,
and as yet unimagined, sales. The BBC expressed interest, but gave
neither promises, nor cash. In short, the production company was
taking an enormous gamble on the trip, with cash it did not have
to spare.
Nick, who lived in Pretoria, drove to Johannesburg to meet
me. We bought tents, dried food, water purifiers, mosquito nets
and enough medical supplies to equip a small hospital. Everything
was written down and ticked off meticulously in his notebook.