Plea to rebels: My brother is no killer

Catherine Sands-Wearing, pictured with husband Donovan Wearing, makes a plea at a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade press conference for the Ivory Coast rebels to release her brother Hamish Sands unharmed. Picture / Fotopress

The sister of the New Zealand man held by West African rebels has made a plea for his release, saying he is not a mercenary but suffers from psychological problems.

New Forces rebel leaders in the Ivory Coast have threatened to kill Brian Hamish Thomas Sands - known as Hamish - whom they accuse of being a mercenary on contract from the Ivory Coast Government to assassinate them.

But Mr Sands' sister, Catherine Sands-Wearing, said last night: "We appeal to those who are holding Hamish to release him unharmed.

"Hamish has had behavioural problems in the past which we believe may have contributed to his current situation."

The rebel newspaper Le Front called Mr Sands, 36, who was travelling on a New Zealand passport, "an extremely dangerous man who came to offer his services as a hired killer" to President Laurent Gbagbo.

The rebels said his main objective was to "kill political and military leaders" and that, although he was unarmed, he had a GPS satellite navigation system, a bullet-proof vest and maps.

They also said he was carrying contact details for members of the Government Army and of President Gbagbo's party, as well as for "mercenary recruiting firms".

Foreign Minister Phil Goff said every attempt was being made to secure Mr Sands' release.

Diplomatic efforts to save him were hampered by a lack of direct contact between his ministry and the rebels, although the British Embassy in Ivory Coast had offered to do what it could.

The minister said his officials would be keen to persuade the rebels that the information they claimed to have about Mr Sands was not factual, although he acknowledged that time might already have run out for him.

Mr Goff's alarm grew when Television One broadcast an interview with the rebels' second-in-command, who claimed Mr Sands did not need to be tried as he had already established himself as a murderer.

Mr Goff said the rebel leader's comments were particularly chilling.

The leader was quoted as saying in French: "We don't need to judge him because he was a murderer, he came here to do a murder, therefore we don't need to put him on trial."

The commander said Mr Sands would be handed over to the public for summary punishment as "the people will know what their job is".

Ms Sands-Wearing said Mr Sands, who grew up in Hawkes Bay, had never been in the New Zealand Army and the family did not know if he had served in any other foreign force.

They believed the rebels' statement that he had were speculative.

The Sands family had learned about Mr Sands' arrest through media reports and had contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Ms Sands-Wearing said the last time any member of the family had heard from Mr Sands was via an email two weeks ago.

She declined to go into details of what was in the email and would not elaborate on Mr Sands' psychological problems.

Ms Sands-Wearing said the family had had sporadic contact with Mr Sands over the past 20 years and did not know the reason for his travel.

"The contact has been limited and because of his problems we're not really sure what in fact he has been doing," she said.

Le Front claimed he was a career soldier who had served in the New Zealand Army for six years before being discharged in 1994 as a captain, and said he had frequented some of the world's worst trouble-spots, including Iraq and Sudan.

But the Defence Force last night denied that he had served with this country's military.

Mr Goff said: "So far we haven't got absolutely watertight evidence as to what his situation is, what he was doing there, what was motivating him, or whether any, or all, of what is being said is simply illusion."

The rebels said in a statement that they detained Mr Sands as he was on his way to their stronghold of Bouake in a passenger coach from the capital, Abidjan.

"At this stage of our investigation, it has emerged that the objective of this mercenary was the physical elimination of some of the political and military heads of the New Forces [rebel movement]," they said.

The statement described Mr Sands as a "sniper, elite shooter, diver parachutist, rugby player, karate and judo expert".

Le Front claimed that after leaving the Army, Mr Sands worked with private security firms and that he confessed to having gone to Ivory Coast to eliminate the heads of the rebels' political and military arms.

"A very dangerous mission for him - his attempt to pass himself off as a United Nations blue helmet [peacekeeping soldier] didn't work," the newspaper said.

It said that the New Zealander had arrived in Ivory Coast on February 13 with several passports, including from Israel, Lebanon and Yugoslavia, and three days later addressed a letter to the country's President offering his services.

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, has been split between a rebel-held north and a Government-run south since a September 2002 rebellion sparked a civil war.

The two sides are kept apart by more than 6000 United Nations peacekeepers and 4000 French troops, but violence has flared in recent months and the peace process is all but deadlocked.

Foreign combatants, mainly from neighbouring Liberia, fought on both sides during the conflict.

The rebels say President Gbagbo's forces were helped by South African and Angolan mercenaries.

- additional reporting: NZPA, agencies