A Zimbabwean official inside the US-registered cargo plane at Harare airport. (AP)

Johannesburg, March 9 (Reuters): A plane seized in Zimbabwe carrying 64 people whom the Harare government suspects of being mercenaries was bound for the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide security guards for mines, its operator said today.

“They were going to eastern DRC. They stopped in Zimbabwe to pick up mining equipment, Zimbabwe being a vastly cheaper place for such things,” said Charles Burrow, a senior executive of Logo Logistics Ltd which had chartered the Boeing 727 freighter.

He said by telephone from London that most of the people on board were South African and had military experience, but were on contract to four mining companies in Congo. He declined to name the companies.

Burrows denied any knowledge of a group of “15 mercenaries” which the government of the west African state of Equatorial Guinea said it had arrested today and said they were linked to the plane impounded at Harare. “I haven’t the foggiest idea of what they’re talking about,” he said.

Zimbabwe authorities said yesterday they had impounded the plane and its passengers at Harare airport on Sunday when it said the crew made a false declaration. Today, Zimbabwe said it had put its army on full alert. “We have mobilised all our security organs to get to the bottom of this case,” a government official said who declined to be identified.

In a separate statement faxed to Reuters, Logo Logistics, which is registered in Britain’s Channel Islands, said the group was contracted “to provide a range of services to mining clients, including logistics, support services, asset and human security”. It disputed the statement by Zimbabwe which said military equipment had been seized on the plane.

“What had been described as ‘military equipment’ in some earlier reports now has been shown to be items such as boots, tools, pipe-bending and other equipment, wire-cutting and connecting tools, and similar,” it said. “All are items normally sourced in South Africa, as they are difficult and expensive to obtain elsewhere in southern Africa.”