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32In 2002, <strong>the</strong> British Government released a Green Paper, Private MilitaryCompanies: Options for Regulation. The paper accepted that PMC had become a factof life and examined a range of related policy options including a licensing scheme forPMC. 111 Such a scheme has not been officially implemented and <strong>the</strong> industry has sincebeen encouraged by <strong>the</strong> British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to self-regulateunder <strong>the</strong> auspices of BAPSC. 112The <strong>Australian</strong> Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Act 1978 prohibits<strong>Australian</strong> citizens and residents of Australia from hostile activity in a foreign state for<strong>the</strong> purpose of overthrowing <strong>the</strong> government or engaging in armed hostilities. The Actalso prohibits <strong>the</strong> stockpiling of arms, unauthorised recruitment, military training andcollecting of money to support foreign incursions. The Act does not, however, apply tothose serving in <strong>the</strong> armed forces of a foreign government (this was amended in 2002to exclude armed forces that cooperate with terrorist organisations such as <strong>the</strong> formerTaliban government of Afghanistan). Contravention of <strong>the</strong> Act attracts penalties of upto fourteen years’ imprisonment. 113The Act was originally framed to thwart <strong>the</strong> activities of <strong>Australian</strong> members of <strong>the</strong>Croatian opposition to <strong>the</strong> Tito regime in Yugoslavia. It has since been employed toprosecute persons opposed to <strong>the</strong> legitimate governments of <strong>the</strong> Comoros Islands,Indonesia, <strong>the</strong> Seychelles and Cameroon. Ten men were convicted under <strong>the</strong> Actbetween 1981 and 1998, receiving sentences of up to four years. 114 In 1987 <strong>the</strong> Actwas invoked in <strong>the</strong> unsuccessful prosecution of David Everett, a former <strong>Australian</strong> SASsoldier who had fought with <strong>the</strong> Karen National liberation <strong>Army</strong> in Burma. 115111 Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Private Military Companies: Options for Regulation, TheStationery Office, London, 12 February 2002.112 A Bearpark and S Schulz, ‘The Future of <strong>the</strong> Market’ in S Chesterman and C Lehnardt, FromMercenaries to Market: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies, Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford, 2007, pp. 239–50; see also <strong>the</strong> BAPSC website at: accessed 5 January 2010.113 An Act Relating to Incursions into Foreign States and Recruitment for Service in Armed Forcesin Foreign States, Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Act 1978, 13 of 1978. Report on<strong>the</strong> Clauses of <strong>the</strong> Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Bill 1977, Parliamentary PaperNo. 67/1977, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, April 1977.114 See Annex A for details.115 See D Everett, Shadow Warrior: From <strong>the</strong> SAS to Australia’s Most Wanted, Penguin Books,Camberwell, 2008, pp. 179–88.

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