Costas Georgiou
Encyclopedia
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
executed following the Luanda Trial
Luanda Trial
The Luanda Trial was a trial held in Luanda, Angola in June and July 1976 by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola , recently victorious in the Angolan War of Independence, to prosecute thirteen foreign mercenaries who had served its defeated rival, the National Liberation Front of...
for activities during the civil war phase of the Angolan War of Independence
Angolan War of Independence
The Angolan War of Independence began as an uprising against forced cotton cultivation, and became a multi-faction struggle for control of Portugal's Overseas Province of Angola with three nationalist movements and a separatist movement...
.
Early life
Georgiou was born on CyprusCyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
in 1951, when the island was still a British protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
. His family moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the early 1960s.
British military career
Georgiou joined the British Army and served, at first with distinction, in 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment in Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. He was credited as being one of the best marksmen in the unit,he was also alleged to have fired 26 shots on Bloody Sunday when civilians were killed in Derry. However, he was later court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
ed, along with his fellow-soldier Mick Wainhouse, after they robbed a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. Georgiou was convicted and dishonorably discharged. This is not true. George was in jail on the day of Bloody Sunday after robbing a post-office
Despite later claiming to have been a colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
, Georgiou's highest British Army rank attained was that of corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
, and he never received officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
training. Not true, George was a private soldier.
Background: Roots of the conflict and Georgiou's recruitment
In 1975, PortugalPortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
recognized the independence of its former colony of Angola, and acknowledged the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-aligned MPLA faction as the de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
government. The new government sought and received help in the form of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n military advisors, combat troops and material to fight against rival factions, which included the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-backed FNLA and the South African-backed UNITA
UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...
, which received some US funding but no actual military aid. At the same time, British and American ex-military were recruited by FNLA through contacts in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Funding was provided by various NATO-member intelligence organizations, including the American CIA and the French Secret Service
Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage
The Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage was France's external intelligence agency from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 when it was replaced by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure...
.
By this time, Georgiou was out of the army and working part-time in construction. He had few prospects for more stable and gainful employment, given his dishonorable discharge. He was dating a Greek Cypriot woman, Rona Angelo. Her cousin was 'Shotgun' Charlie Christodoulou, like Costas an ex-paratrooper of Greek Cypriot extraction, but honorably discharged. An acquaintance, Nick Hall, another dishonorably discharged airborne veteran, took the initiative of putting out an advertisement soliciting mercenary employment for four able-bodied young men. These would be Hall himself, Georgiou, Christodoulou and Costas's old comrade, Mick Wainhouse.
The men received a prompt reply from "Dr." Donald Belford, a former British Army medic who had volunteered for a humanitarian aid group in Africa some years before. While there, he had treated several Angolan fighters wounded in the struggle against the Portuguese, earning their friendship and trust. One of his friends was Holden Roberto
Holden Roberto
Holden Álvaro Roberto founded and led the National Liberation Front of Angola from 1962 to 1999. His memoirs are unfinished.-Early life:...
, leader of the FNLA. After independence, Belford became Roberto's official emissary in the United Kingdom.
Georgiou in Angola
"Colonel Tony Callan," as Georgiou was now styling himself - the surname having come from the popular hardbitten espionage and action series Callan, starring Edward Woodward as a hired gun for the Crown - led a small FNLA military group composed of mostly Portuguese and Greek Cypriot mercenaries with the odd Irishman, Lyndon Sheehan, thrown in. One of the Portuguese, who styled himself "Madeira" after the famous fortified wineMadeira wine
Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands. Some wines produced in small quantities in California and Texas are also referred to as "Madeira", or "Madera", although those wines do not conform to the EU PDO regulations...
, was also a former champion boxer. This group were all excellent, experienced soldiers, but far too few in numbers to accomplish a decisive victory. Still, the record they amassed in their short guerilla campaign was impressive.
In one ambush on an MPLA column, the squad-sized unit, led by Sheehan, killed 60 of the approximately 600 MPLA and Cuban fighters, and destroyed four T-34's
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
and four "Stalin organ" mobile rocket platforms, Sheehan lost four men in this firefight. Impressed with their efforts, Holden Roberto dispatched Nick Hall back to England to recruit a full battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
.
Thanks to ongoing recruitment in England, a somewhat larger mercenary contingent was formed, but a full battalion was never realized. The enlarged force was still rather small relative to MPLA/Cuban forces, and many of the men were civilians with no military experience. Many refused to submit to military discipline. This, combined with the foreign, Mediterranean origin of most of the core leadership (Georgiou, Christodoulou and the Portuguese), created a deep gulf between the officers and British men — to say nothing of the native Angolans recruited as infantry and support troops. Most of these had no military experience, and many knew no English or even Portuguese, then still the language of government and the native elite.
The "battalion" fought several more dramatic engagements, including successful ambushes of minor MPLA detachments. However, given his limited resources and the fact that many of his men — European and native alike — were untrained amateurs, Georgiou's campaign was ultimately a failure. According to mercenary David Tomkins, the group spent most of its time foraging for food, usable weapons, and ammunition. Much of this foraging consisted of "raids" on villages where the men would casually walk into town brandishing their weapons, searching for anything of use. Anyone who offered violent resistance would be shot, although Tomkins said in an interview that this was rare.
Lack of proper equipment was one of the key factors in the failure of foreign mercenary units in Angola generally, and in Georgiou's case in particular. The MPLA had Soviet tanks, artillery and crack Cuban troops. The other two factions had mostly light infantry, not always the best trained and disciplined either. Another factor was leadership inexperience: Georgiou had absolutely no training nor experience as a commissioned officer, nor did most of his counterparts in other units.
Trial and execution
The principal crime for which Georgiou was convicted during the Luanda TrialLuanda Trial
The Luanda Trial was a trial held in Luanda, Angola in June and July 1976 by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola , recently victorious in the Angolan War of Independence, to prosecute thirteen foreign mercenaries who had served its defeated rival, the National Liberation Front of...
, and subsequently executed, was the slaying of fourteen of his men who had attempted to desert in some of the trucks that were carrying the unit's supplies. They did this after mistakenly firing on one of the other vehicles in their convoy, for which they feared punishment. He was also accused of killing two Angolan civilians, as well as torturing civilians to extract intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
on enemy troop movements. In addition, fighting as a rebel soldier was itself considered a crime by the prosecuting MPLA authorities. Coronel Callan as he used to call himself, killed all of his fourteen or ten men just because they ran away from the position which was under their surveillance. The place used to be called Sanza Pombo.
At that time Callan was stationed at S. Salvador, where I meet him in January of 1976.
Georgiou's sister was allowed to visit him during his captivity in Angola. In a BBC interview, she said they spoke mainly about their family and the trial proceedings. They conversed in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. Georgiou's body was repatriated to England, and he was buried according to the rites of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Further reading
- Dempster, Chris. Fire Power (first hand account of foreign mercenaries fighting on the side of the FNLA) http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/227/227121_mercenary_past_of_shamed_councillor.html
- Kennedy, Bruce. Soldiers of misfortune: Mercenaries play major roles in 20th-century conflicts, from CNN'sCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
1989 Cold War series. Accessed 22 January 2008 - Milliard, Todd S. Overcoming post-colonial myopia: A call to recognize and regulate private military companies(PDF), in Military Law Review Vol 173, June 2003. At the time of publication Major Milliard was a Judge AdvocateJudge Advocate General's CorpsJudge Advocate General's Corps, also known as JAG or JAG Corps, refers to the legal branch or specialty of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, and Navy. Officers serving in the JAG Corps are typically called Judge Advocates. The Marine Corps and Coast Guard do not maintain separate JAG Corps...
in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. ArmyJudge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. ArmyThe Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army is composed of Army officers who are also lawyers and who provide legal services to the Army at all levels of command. The Judge Advocate General's Legal Service includes judge advocates, warrant officers, paralegal noncommissioned...
. pp 39,40 - Staff. 1976: Death sentence for mercenaries, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, part of their "On this Day" series (28 June 1976). Accessed 22 January 2008 - Staff 1976: Mercenaries trial begins in Angola, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, part of their "On this Day" series (11 June 1976). Accessed 22 January 2008 - Staff, Good Guys, Bad Guys:Tomkins Interview National Security Archive, 22 February 1999. Hosted on the website of George Washington UniversityGeorge Washington UniversityThe George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
. - Unknown Author. 2000 Article - The killing of Colonel Callan,The ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter, Canard Volant Non Identifié, November 2005.