John Pienaar: Critics believe foriegn office tried to cover up deal

The men were appearing before UK MPs to give their version of how a British company made a UN-sanctions busting arms shipment to Sierra Leone during a coup in March.

Both Colonel Tim Spicer, head of the mercenary company Sandline International, and the then British High Commissioner in Sierra Leone, Peter Penfold, said they did not immediately realise importing arms into the country meant breaking UN sanctions and UK law.

President Kabbah was restored to power in March

MPs wanted to know how Sandline's arms shipment was able to reach Sierra Leone.

They also wanted an explanation why government officials in London had not been made aware that force was going to be used to restore the democratically-elected President Kabbah and remove the junta which had deposed him.

The international community had hoped for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Officials were told

Mr Spicer insisted he told government officials at two key meeting in December 1997 and January 1998 about his plans to use force.

Tim Spicer: Resolution was aimed at the junta

He said that during his meeting with Mr Penfold and other officials, no one had informed him that his plans would be illegal.

"At no stage was it pointed out to me, as has been stated in the past, that we went through [the UN resolution] line by line. Nor was there a red letter warning that what we were going to do was in some way illegal."

Mr Spicer's mercenary company was partly responsible for restoring President Kabbah to power in Sierra Leone in March this year.

UN resolution

Turning to the UN arms embargo on Sierra Leone, Mr Spicer said he thought the "resolution was aimed entirely at the junta not at President Kabbah".

MPs ask Spicer if he was warned

Mr Spicer then firmly defended the actions of his company in restoring President Kabbah to power.

He said: "There comes a point, and a number of people realised it over Sierra Leone, where diplomacy was definitely not working and in this case the junta was making mockery of the diplomatic process and doing unspeakable things to its own people.

"The time has to come at some stage where if there is deadlock, military action or some form of action has to be considered. In this case it was absolutely right."

Mr Spicer also described a discussion with foreign office officials about how to supply night vision equipment from the UK in a way that circumvented lengthy export procedures.

Penfold: 'No regrets'

Mr Penfold told the MPs: "I personally have no regrets on what I did.

"I had no doubt at all that everything I did was being done properly in fulfilment of legal requirement and fulfilment of British government policy."