Sierra Leone Arms Investigation (Legg inquiry)

The Sierra Leone Arms Investigation was launched in May 1998 following a political firestorm dubbed the "Arms-to-Africa" affair. The scandal centred on Sandline International, a private military company (PMC) led by Lt Col Tim Spicer, which had supplied 30 tonnes of Bulgarian arms to the forces of the exiled President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. This shipment occurred while a UN arms embargo (implemented in British law via an Order in Council) was in place, prohibiting the supply of arms to any party in Sierra Leone.

Sir Thomas Legg was tasked with determining what government officials and ministers knew about this breach. The political stakes were incredibly high; the Labour government, which had recently promised an "ethical foreign policy," was accused of being "mercenaries by proxy," helping the "good guys" (the democratic government) by turning a blind eye to illegal arms deals.

The report, published in July 1998, found that no minister—including Foreign Secretary Robin Cook—had any "effective knowledge" or gave any "encouragement" to the arms shipment. However, Legg delivered a stinging critique of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). He found that the High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Peter Penfold, had given a "degree of approval" to Sandline's plans, though he mistakenly believed the embargo only applied to the rebel junta, not the elected government.

Legg identified a "culture of ignorance" and systemic failures in the FCO. Information about the arms shipment had reached several officials in the Africa Command, but it was "overlooked" or not passed up the chain of command because of a lack of legal understanding and an "overload" of work. The report concluded that the scandal was a result of bureaucratic incompetence and a "failure of communication" rather than a deliberate "state-sponsored" breach of the law. While it cleared ministers of criminal wrongdoing, the Legg Inquiry remains a case study in the difficulties of regulating private military companies and the friction between "high-level" foreign policy goals and the strict rule of law.