In this postmodern, postindustrial and politically correct era of ours, the myth of ``fair and democratic elections'' seems to be omnipresent, undeniable and universally desirable. With the exception of small enclaves like North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Cuba - the world seems to be moving along a trajectory that is, at least officially, determined by millions of ballots. How realistic that is is another question, a question that Monsieur Robert Denard, the original ``Dog of War'', a character who elevated coups to the level of art, and who used his free time to acquire the not-so-flattering titles of polygamist, serial apostate and semi-secret agent, never bothered to consider.
After serving in the French Navy during the colonial war in Indochina in the early 1950s, Bob decided to enter private waters because the civil service was rich in decorations but poor in cash. While in Morocco as a mercenary for the colonial administration, Denard fell under the charm of a Jewish woman, which led him to change his religion for the first time and reorient himself from Catholicism to Judaism. It is not known how that love story ended, but Denard wasted no time and got involved in the first of what would turn out to be dozens of coups d'état in which he participated or organized.
Like any beginner, Bob Denard decided to start at home, that is, he joined a right-wing group that was preparing a coup in France, with the aim of overthrowing Prime Minister Pierre France. After the plot was prematurely discovered, Bobby-boy was imprisoned, from which he was released thanks to an amnesty resulting from his intention to get involved in the particularly bloody war in Algeria. He did not stay there for long as a secret agent, since the war was already lost anyway. Bob returns 'home' where he has difficulty fitting into civilian life, working for a time selling washing machines and various odd-jobs when he learns about the organization of mercenary units in neighboring Belgium that were sent to the Belgian Congo.
At that time (1961), due to the existence of a leftist government in Kinshasa under the leadership of Patrice Luulumba, the Western powers decided to initiate a secessionist war to overthrow the new regime - and to that end, the province of Katanga, under the leadership of a maniacal character named Moise Tshombe, seceded from the Congo, following the completely fresh millennial aspiration of the Katangan people for their own statehood. The problem was that Katanga had no army. That's why there were the ``Dogs of War'', including Denar, a mass of mercenaries from Europe, a collection of seriously picturesque characters from ex-S men, former members of the Foreign Legion and the ``Alpine Hunters'' to former members of the SAS, GIGN and various armies, air forces and navies. Denar acquired pseudo-legendary status in that war after breaking several sieges, extracting several units from encirclement and liquidating a certain number of enemy forces.
But despite the mercenaries, the new regime in Katanga was of a temporary nature, after the fall of Lulumba and his liquidation - the need for the division of Congo-Kinshasa disappeared and the secessionist regime itself, mired in corruption and malfeasance - collapsed very easily. This was a sign for Denard to look for a new hotbed, this time in the then Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), the little apartheid brother of South Africa where a low-level conflict between the white government and the black guerrillas had been raging for years.
As a kind of reinvention of the legend of the ``Wild Geese'', Bob Denard was willing to constantly hire, some might draw a parallel with a street prostitute and some would add that the oldest profession is not prostitution but military mercenary, which is not so far from the truth. Anyway, Bobby returned to his Catholicism, served as an advisor to the Iranian Shah's secret police (Savak) and as a counter-guerrilla fighter in Nigeria and as a mercenary in the Yemen crisis, at one time he returned to Congo-Kinshasa (this time renamed Zaire) to suppress some kind of revolt, participated in the Portuguese colonial war in Angola, placed himself at the service of French and other interests for which he organized coups d'état in Benin, Gabon and Guinea... the list, although final, is still too long and too extensive for a simple blog post and therefore we will focus on Denaro's greatest passion, creating policy in the Comoros archipelago, a secluded place in the Indian Ocean where Bob will for a period become the Grey Eminence, the Caliph above the Caliph, a character who simply cries out for a good screen adaptation.
He first appeared in the Comoros in 1975 with the aim of organizing a coup d'état (and what else would he look for there) against the then president who was not to the will of Paris. The coup succeeded and a new leader was installed, close to the Boulevard Mortier (the French Langley). But like many other installed leaders, this one was not happy in his role as a puppet and therefore began to 'escape' with his own, supposedly pro-leftist programs. At that time, various dictators and 'lifetime' presidents in Africa were scared with the words 'be calm son because if you are not smart, Uncle Bob Denard will come and treat you' and so it was in this case - the disobedient president was removed with a new coup d'état organized by Bob. Not only that, but the president was liquidated, purely to discourage other similar situations...The islands became too much for Denar's bleeding heart, the hardened mercenary softened in the tropical paradise, changed his religion again (this time from Catholicism to Islam), married several times and established a presidential guard of 500 special forces that he personally organized and drilled.
That guard was not there to protect the latest president installed from Paris, but existed as Denar's racketeering service and his personal Praetorian Guard. Because the guy became the de facto king of the islands. And a king can get by without a crown, but not without his own personal guard - no way. His organization constantly violated the embargo on South Africa and served for secret deliveries of weapons and equipment to the apartheid regime, purchased from France. Mirage planes, armored vehicles, laser-guided bombs and even nuclear reactors found their way to Cape Town. For these services, Denard was richly rewarded by the French secret services, which for some time, investing the money throughout the islands, turned him into a local tycoon. Several marriages later, Islam bored him and he returned to Catholicism...
It seemed that our ``hero``, a polygamist and polyglot - would remain on the islands for life like a kidney in fat...but dark clouds began to gather over Bob's mustache, the latest Comorian president was not happy that he had to be ``second fiddle`` in the archipelago, if we add to that the possibility of grabbing the loot - Denard was ordered to disband the guard. Refusing, Denard and the ``dogs`` found themselves in an armed clash with the Comorian army and police, with the climax being particularly cinematic, Denard with several elite colleagues made his way to the presidential palace and personally shot the president, but in all the commotion he was wounded himself. In the new situation, Bob decided to leave the islands and headed for South Africa in order to avoid mass bloodshed. During that period, he himself became a `burden` for the French secret services, because he was increasingly working for himself rather than for his clients.
The newest president declared Bob persona non grata on the islands, which would only mean signing his own death warrant; Denard's revenge would come to him a few years later. In the meantime, bored in France despite his repeated conversion to Islam, Bob planned the twentieth anniversary coup d'état in the Comoros. Completely privately and without the knowledge of the French authorities, Bob gathered old colleagues, veterans of African wars, and in 1995 he headed for his favorite islands. At the head of 33 hardened mercenaries who, with the help of rubber boats, saied from a rented ship in the Comoros, Bob put an end to the rule of yet another president. The majority of the presidential guard, trained by him, offered no resistance and placed themselves at the disposal of their old founder, who was considered a cult soldier in those parts.
His rule lasted a short time, about ten days, because Jacques Chirac and company began to suspect that good old Bobby had gone mad. The time for mercenary exploits was over, the dogs of war were less and less able to work on their own, "film" actions without permission "from above" were repulsive to Versailles. The fact that Denard did not inform anyone about his plan to become "tsar" of the Comoros was probably one of the last straws...
Two frigates and two corvettes loaded with special forces, legionnaires and paratroopers were dispatched, and air support for Operation ``Azalea`` (as the French military intervention to overthrow Bob Denard was called) was provided by helicopters, ``Bregge Atlantic`` surveillance planes and ``Transal C-160`` transport planes that were supposed to unload paratroopers to conquer key strategic points on the islands.
Unexpectedly, the adventurers found themselves in a difficult position, although Bob, in addition to his 33 colleagues, had over 500 ``guardsmen`` at his disposal from whom he could expect loyalty, along with several heavy machine guns that they had brought with them - however, all of this was too little to think about stopping the French intervention. After sporadic fighting in which four ``guardsmen`` were killed and nine ``guardsmen`` and several legionnaires were wounded - the ``war`` ended with the surrender of Denard and the new government. Denard was arrested and taken to Paris where he was sentenced...conditionally (!?) because his old contacts in the French intelligence services and the politicians he served - made sure that the fugitive adventurer did not spend a single day in a cell.
Finding himself outside his natural habitat (coups and special missions in Africa), harassed by the judicial authorities who had been finding new "tricks" for him for years, Bob Denard repentantly re-converted to Catholicism, changing his faith for the last time. And just in time - because in 2007 he supposedly passed away. Allegedly - because information emerged, witnesses who saw him in various locations throughout Africa later, that using some of the dozens of aliases with appropriate passport documentation, Bob simply fled France...Whatever the real version of Denard's end, whether he has already been eaten by worms or is drinking a cocktail somewhere under a tropical sunset - it is still the end of an incredibly colorful character who transcends the bureaucratic-military framework of the sinister French foreign policy and escapes into a category of his own, a category about which nothing good can be said except that it is never boring...
(Roger Mortis, 099)
