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Between 300 and 500 Europeans, citizens of Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Belgium, Britain and France are fighting on the side of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Among them there are 20 Greek mercenaries, specialists in handling heavy weapons, helicopters technology and tactics and command fees. This was announced to the EUobserver by Michel Koutouzis, who is a Greek expert on organized crime, former adviser to the French government, UN and the European Union on those issues. He owns the French registered company Lotophages Consulting and spent February and March travelling in North Africa researching various projects. 

The Europeans are only part of an even larger numbers of hired fighters from the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Mali and Somalia. According to criminologist the salary of the African mercenaries is $2000 per day, but the Europeans are better paid. Together with them fighting are also 25000 soldiers from the Libyan army, and if to this figure we add the well-equipped militia, led by the sons of the Colonel, Gaddafi has about 50,000 soldiers. "In Libyan society there is a taboo against killing people from your own tribal group, so the employment of foreigners is imperative," explains Koutouzis. According to the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, Gaddafi gets help also from Russian, Algerian and Syrian mercenaries. 

"Mercenaries started coming after the first U.S. bombardment on Libya. Then the colonel changed his tactics and began using hired soldiers, who stay for about 2 weeks and then they get replaced with ones," said the expert. According to him another reason Gaddafi hires foreigners is because he does not trust Libyans. "Over the past 40 years there have been almost constant coups against him and all his personal bodyguards are foreigners. The ones truly loyal to him are no more than 10 people, one of whom the Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa who has defected," said Michel Koutouzis. 

Human Rights Watch, which has three of its experts on the frontline in Libya, however, doubted the veracity of these reports. It has contacted a group of mercenaries from South Africa who said they have no evidence of Europeans, South Africans or Zimbabweans to work for Gaddafi. According to the organization, mercenary circles in Africa keep in touch with each other and if Koutouzis’ reports were true, they would have known about it. NATO representative made an official announcement during a press conference that the allied forces have intercepted Colombian snipers in Misrata. 

According to the UN Convention of 1989, “mercenary is any person, local or foreign, who is specifically recruited to participate in armed conflict and is motivated to participate in military activities for personal gains”. Alex Vines, researcher at the Chatham House think-tank in London, reminds that the only European countries that have ratified the convention are Belgium, Cyprus and Italy. "European mercenaries were a problem in North Africa in 1960's and then in 1990's. The current conflict is Africanized" he said. 

Meanwhile, two days ago the official regime in Tripoli brought foreign journalists to a camp about 85 kilometers from the Libyan capital, where civilians are trained to fight. According to reporters thousands of Libyan nationals currently undergo various forms of military training to fight with NATO forces in a possible land invasion.