Security agents in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), arrested 32 foreigners on Tuesday for plotting a coup against the government of Joseph Kabila, Interior Minister Theophilus Mbemba said.

"They came from Iraq, where they had worked as soldiers," Mbemba said on Wednesday from Kinshasa. The 12 South Africans, 10 Nigerians and three Americans - all of whom the government described as mercenaries - were working in Kinshasa for a private security company called Omega. Mbemba said the men were caught with military equipment but would not specify the nature or number of the equipment that was seized because the case is still under investigation.

Some of those arrested were without passports. President Thabo Mbeki said "Congo must act firmly against every attempts of destabilisation."

The South African ambassador to the DRC, Sisa Ngombane, said 19 of the men held South African passports, which needed checking. "We would rather send passport details to our security services for verification of the holders' South African nationality," he said.

South Africa has a law prohibiting its citizens from engaging in mercenary activity.

Mbemba said the United States and Nigerian embassies had not yet confirmed the nationalities of the detainees. The three U.S. citizens are part of a team providing high-level consulting and security services to Congolese Presidential candidate, Havard-educated Dr. Oscar Kashala, who lives in the USA. The latter has been summoned for questioning by the police.

However, américan TV channel, WFTV, revealed on 26.05.2006, the americans mercenaries are two Central Florida men, including Joe Robinson. One of them, Jose Robinson (see photo above, by Wftv), is a former Orlando police captain who served at the right hand of two Orlando mayors. Joe Robinson has been the deputy chief of staff for Mayor Buddy Dyer and an assistant to former Mayor Glenda Hood. He was a SWAT team leader, public-information officer and gang-intervention-unit commander, among many other things. Robinson is well-known among Orlando's politicos for his loyalty to Dyer and Hood. When Dyer, a Democrat, was arrested in 2005, Robinson was at his side as he was booked at the Orange County Jail and when he was cleared. He became Republican Hood's bodyguard, driver and adviser, and helped plan security after the Sept. 11 attacks. The other two were: Kevin Billings, 48, a retired Secret Service agent who was in charge of providing protection for U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; and Seth Taylor, a subcontractor from San Diego. The Americans left for Congo on May 10 and arrived in Kinshasa on May 13. They carried satellite phones and maps. They work at AQMI, a private U.S. security company.They're accused of planning a coup were held into custody before being deported, of course justice has been sacrificed for Congo not to attract the mighty wrath of the USA. Poor Congo where a Rwandan Tutsi (Ruberwa) is in charge of national security! We hope it only for the transitional period!

Their arrest on 19.05.2006 by special police in Kinshasa coincided with a trip in the Great Lakes Region by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Don Yamamoto.

International donors have accused Congo's government of exploiting the alleged coup plot to harass political opponents, which they say is impossible in a country where 17,000 UN troops are deployed (the biggest in the world so far).

The Tutsi army invaded Bukavu in June 2004 under the nose of the UN Mission in Congo, known as Monuc by its french acronym. Laurent Nkunda, aformer Rwandan refugee in Congo who led the invasion confessed that American William Swing, the head of Monuc lent him his private mobile phone (...); The Tutsi armies from Rwanda and Uganda fought each other tree times in Kisangani in 2002, leaving none of themselves dead, but more than 5,000 Congolese dead. This happened still under the nose of Monuc; The recent invasion of Kanyabayonga by Tutsi troops took place under the nose of Monuc... We can go on and on.

Joe Robinson and Kevin Billings arrived back in Orlando on Tuesday night, WESH 2 News reported.

They can't go back to the Congo, but they said they won't forget it either.

The consultants of the Orlando-based ACME Strategy Corporation had been contracted to provide security for a presidential candidate in a politically unstable country, but instead, Robinson and Billings spent nine days in a prison in the Congo.

"I've been to many countries before, Iraq, Somalia and bad countries before, and every time I go to countries like that, I always plan security against militants," Billings said. "Unfortunately, in this case and in cases past, I never thought about worrying about the police."

Robinson and Billings said Congo police held them at gunpoint and robbed them of everything.

While they give heartfelt thanks to the local media for bringing attention to their plight in the Congo, they hope the national media will bring attention to the plight of the people who live in the Congo. The latest edition of Time magazine tells the world what they already know.

"With the change in the world now and the way the world markets are, I think Africa, especially the central part of Africa, is key geologically and politically," Robinson said.

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