People flying into Harare may, if they have an eye for such things, see the unmistakable shape of a Boeing 727, forlorn and rotting on the other side of the airport.

The Boeing has been parked there since March 7 2004, seized soon after landing in the small hours. On board were the three cockpit crew and 61 other men who, depending on who’s talking, were mercenaries, security guards or pawns in a military misadventure cooked up in the highest British circles and designed to overthrow Equatorial Guinea president-forever Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Their leader, Simon Mann, Old Etonian, ex-Scots Guardsman and private military contractor, was on hand to meet the aircraft that had landed to fetch him and a lot of weaponry...

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