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BRITISH SERVICE PERSONNEL ON LOAN TO ZAMBIAN FORCES
(Previous Reference: OPD (67) 9th Meeting)
The Committee considered a note by the Minister of Defence for Administration (OPD(67) 28) on British service personnel on loan to
Zambia.
THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE FOR ADMINISTRATION said that the Zambian
Government remained unwilling to sign a loan agreement in respect of
British army and air force personnel serving on loan with Zambian forces.
President Kaunda had not replied to the message sent to him on the subject
from the Prime Minister and it had been announced in Zambia that British
service personnel serving with Zambian forces were subject to Zambian military law. Although it was standard practice to have a loan agreement
with any country in which our service personnel were loaned, the Zanbian
Government regarded its signature as a derogation from their sovereignty.
We could not continue to send our service personnel to Zambia in these
circumstances since they would lack the legal protection which they should
have even for acts carried out in the course of their duties and could be
tried under Zambian military or civil law for these. In accordance with
the decision taken when the Committee last discussed the subject, no further
RAF personnel had been sent to Zambia, and as a result the Zambian Air
Force would cease to be operational in August this year and would remain so
for three months even if the normal flow of replacements were now resumed.
The Zambian arny would however remain a more or less viable force without
replacements from the British army, provided that contract officers, many of
whom were British, did not leave as our army personnel were phased out.
these circumstances we should inform President Kaunda that, unless a loan
agreement was negotiated, we should withdraw all our service personnel, those from the RAF leaving by August this year and those from the army by November/
December. If, as was possible, Zambia wished to retain RAF personnel and
were prepared to sign a loan agreement covering them we should accept this,
but only on the basis that our army personnel would have the same cover
during the six months period of withdrawal. This reservation was essential
since otherwise we should be distinguishing between the status in Zambia of
members of our two services, leaving army personnel liable to prosecution
under Zambian law. Our proposals might be conveyed to President Kaunda by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence for the Royal Navy if he visited Zambia early in May; otherwise, in view of the urgency of the
situation,a message might go from the Prime Minister to President Kaunda
conveying our proposals.
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