We remember that the accusations that Russia is using mercenary soldiers to attack Ukraine were denied not only in Russia but also in Sri Lanka. While the Ukrainians scattered in the four corners of the world flocked to the capital city of Kiev to face the Russian aggressor, Russia became helpless due to the desertion of its soldiers. Vladimir Putin had only one solution to save his dignity. It was the deployment of soldiers to war on the basis of hire. That is the reason why the Wagner paramilitary soldiers, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, are used as assassins for hire in Putin’s bloodthirsty war.
The best example heard in the world about the use of mercenary soldiers is this illegal act done by Russia. A country army and a mercenary army are distinctly two. Therefore, the revelation of Prigozhin’s Wagner paramilitary forces put Putin in a serious crisis. If any country invades another country by using mercenary soldiers, that aggression will cross even the minimum limits of morality. Countries that do such actions are clearly despised by the world. It is unfortunate that the name of Sri Lanka is included among the countries that used mercenary soldiers to suppress another part of the population.
It is not a secret to the world that in the 1980s, Sri Lanka has received the help of British mercenaries for its military operations in the North East. Even if we do not accept it in Sri Lanka, most of the countries of the world look at us as a dishonorable state that paid millions of pounds and used mercenary soldiers to suppress the Tamil people. Journalist Phil Miller, who works as a journalist on the website Declasified, has written a book about what Sri Lanka’s mercenaries did and the price they paid. This article is written in association with Phil Miller’s co-author of the book “Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away With War Crimes”.
Colonel Henry (Jim) Johnson is regarded as Britain’s most corrupt mercenary. He died in 2008 with a fortune worth £4 million and many properties. He was once described by a senior British diplomat who commented on him as the right-hand man of the tyrannical Mongol emperor Genghis Khan.
Henry Johnson commanded an SAS regiment before launching a mercenary operation in the North Yemen civil war. That was in the 1960s. He then established two private military companies, Keenie Meenie Services (KMS) and Saladin Security. Among these two companies, it has been confirmed that the KMS company was used for mercenary operations in Sri Lanka.
The name Keenie Meenie in Arabic or Swahili simply means covert operation. Henry Johnson’s Keenie Meenie Company supported the monarchs of the Gulf region. His company’s major assignments include commanding the Sultan of Oman’s Special Forces and providing bodyguards to Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Sheikh Yamani.
His company KMS, which does not limit its business activities to the Gulf region, contributed to the formation and training of a paramilitary police unit in Sri Lanka throughout the 1980s. The unit was accused of torturing hundreds of Tamils during the island’s civil war. Johnson’s army also reportedly supplied Sri Lanka with gunners for the helicopters that flew the missions in which Tamil civilians were killed, prompting criticism from a UN monitor.
This company, however, has not yet revealed how much the Sri Lankan government has paid to KMS Private Army for this service. However, the authorities have never disclosed how much KMS paid for the company. But the Metropolitan Police is currently investigating whether KMS mercenaries committed war crimes in Sri Lanka.
In 1986, the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka estimated that the Sri Lankan government was paying two to three million pounds a year for the KMS security service. That will be received. But the KMS company used bank accounts in Jersey and the Cayman Islands, and the financial records for those accounts were not available to investigators, so the statement could not be substantiated with evidence.
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka, while commenting on the Declassified website, says that this British mercenary can understand how severe war crimes have been committed against Tamil civilians by extracting such a large amount of money from his company.
Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam, who leads the Tamil National People’s Front, further commented and said, “The Sri Lankan state should confirm its integrity by telling the parliament how much money they paid for the KMS company to suppress the Tamils in the 1980s.”
Johnson’s story tells the world how profitable mercenary career is. Although there are no detailed records of where Henry Johnson earned his money in the published documents, he tells the world that his entire wealth earned during his lifetime made it profitable to wage war on behalf of other countries.
In 2004, he bought the house in Radley Mews, Kensington, one of the most exclusive districts of London, for a million pounds. It is now worth an estimated £3.2 million. According to the British Land Registry, the house is still owned by the Johnson family.
KMS was shut down in the late 1980s when the US Congress investigated the bombing of a hospital in Nicaragua by KMS-backed Contra rebels. But Henry Johnson co-started. The other company, Saladin Security, is still active.
The UK Foreign Office continues to censor files at the National Archives KMS, saying they could harm national security and jeopardize international relations. Therefore, the Declasified website has filed an appeal with the Information Tribunal, requesting full access to this company’s information. The request will be heard later this year. Watch the video related to the news in the link below https://vimeo.com/466094032
By a special writer.