Bob Denard, 78, dies, anti-commie mercenary
PARIS - Bob Denard, a mercenary who staged coups, battled communism and fought for French interests and his own across Africa for more than three decades, has died, his sister said yesterday. He was 78.
PARIS - Bob Denard, a mercenary who staged coups, battled communism and fought for French interests and his own across Africa for more than three decades, has died, his sister said yesterday. He was 78.
Once France's top gun for hire, Denard led uprisings starting in 1961 in the Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Zimbabwe - when it was white-ruled Rhodesia - as well Iran and Yemen. He claims France often covertly supported his actions.
Denard, whose real name was Gilbert Bourgeaud, staged at least three coups on the Comoros, an impoverished chain of islands in the Indian Ocean that he ruled through figurehead presidents from 1978 to 1989, when France negotiated his departure.
Last year, Denard was handed a five-year suspended prison term by a French court for his role in a failed 1995 coup in the Comoros.
He was convicted for leading about 30 French mercenaries ashore in an overnight raid in an attempt to overthrow then-President Said Djohar.
A week later, French troops freed Djohar and took the mercenaries captive.
In May 1999, Denard was acquitted of the 1989 assassination of Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah, who was shot in his office.
A Paris court also gave Denard a five-year suspended sentence in 1993 for his role in an attempted 1977 putsch in Benin. *