Mercenaries met with four officials from the FO

THE mercenaries who helped to reinstate the ousted president of Sierra Leone, the former British colony in West Africa, met with British and American officials at the highest level, they claimed last night.

In a letter released yesterday by solicitors acting for Sandline International, claims they met with up to four officials within the Foreign Office as well as members of the US departments of state and defence.

The Independent revealed earlier this week that on up to three occasions Sandline executives, including Tim Spicer, met officials from the Foreign Office, led by Craig Murray, deputy head of the Africa (equatorial) desk. It is now claimed other officials, including John Everard, Mr Murray's predecessor, Linda St Cook, the desk officer for Sierra Leone and Tim Andrews, an official with responsibilities for Sierra Leone, Gambia and Liberia, were also present.

Across the Atlantic, Sandline claims to have carried out a similar briefings. Among the officials they claim to have briefed include John Hirsch, the US ambassador to Sierra Leone and Alan Holmes, assistant Defense Secretary. Some of the American briefings may have taken place in October when Col Spicer and Eben Barlow, the director of Executive Outcomes, a mercenary group closely linked to Sandline, attended a conference hosted by the Defence Intelligence Agency in Washington.

In Sierra Leone, Sandline also claimed to have regularly briefed British military officials including Lt Col Peter Hicks, and Andrew Gale, the military adviser to the United Nations special envoy in Sierra Leone. They say they also co-operated closely with the British military operations launched in protection of British civilians in Sierra Leone following Major Johnny Paul Koroma's coup. Sandline said its members even went aboard HMS Cornwall, situated off Freetown and that naval engineers helped repair a damaged helicopter being operated by Sandline.

Negotiations between Sandline, the financier Rakesh Saxena and the exiled Sierra Leone government in Guinea, began as early as July 1997 - just two months after the coup led by Major Koroma. The Independent has learnt that meetings between Sandline and FO officials in London began in December 1997. One meeting, on 19 January, was held at Foreign Office premises in London.

In their letter to the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Sandline's solicitors criticise the way that Customs investigators launched their investigation into a shipment of arms by the mercenaries to Sierra Leone. "We find the actions of Customs officers to be at complete variance with the policy of Her Majesty's government," it says. "It would merit serious criticism that one department ... should be investigating a matter which was conducted with the knowledge and approval of another department."

A State Department official acknowledged that there had been regular contact between Sandline and the US government, but denied that there had been discussions about the supply of arms to the warring factions. The Foreign Office declined to comment.