verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message sandline international type private military security firm industry private military and security contractor defunct 2004 headquarters london england key people tim spicer products law enforcement training logistics close quarter training and security services services security management full service risk management consulting website www.sandline.com sandline international was a private military company based in london established in the early 1990s . it was involved in conflicts in papua new guinea in 1997 and had a contract with the government under then prime minister julius chan causing the sandline affair . in 1998 in sierra leone sandline had a contract with ousted president kabbah and in liberia in 2003 was involved in a rebel attempt to evict the then president charles taylor near the end of the civil war . sandline ceased all operations on 16 april 2004 . on the company s website a reason for closure is given the general lack of governmental support for private military companies willing to help end armed conflicts in places like africa in the absence of effective international intervention is the reason for this decision . without such support the ability of sandline to make a positive difference in countries where there is widespread brutality and genocidal behaviour is materially diminished . 1 sandline was managed by former british army lt col tim spicer . sandline billed itself as a private military company pmc and offered military training operational support such as equipment and arms procurement and limited direct military activity intelligence gathering and public relations services to governments and corporations . while the mass media often referred to sandline as a mercenary company the company s founders disputed that characterisation . a commercial adviser for sandline once told the bbc that the firm saw themselves differently from mercenaries stating that they were an established entity with established sets of principles and that they employed professional people . 2 he reiterated that the firm would not accept contracts from groups or governments that would jeopardise its reputation . 2 spicer recounted his experiences with sandline in the book an unorthodox soldier . contents 1 bibliography 2 see also 3 references 4 external links bibliography edit pelton robert young 1 september 2006 . licensed to kill hired guns in the war on terror . crown . spicer tim 2000 . an unorthodox soldier . mainstream pub co ltd. isbn 1 84018 349 7 . singer p. w. 2003 . corporate warriors the rise of the privatized military industry . cornell university press . isbn 0 8014 8915 6 . bilton michael 2 july 2000 . the private war of tumbledown tim . sunday times magazine . missing or empty url help see also edit aegis defence services executive outcomes simon mann references edit http www.sandline.com a b bbc news 15 march 2004 . mercenaries in africa s conflicts . bbc news . external links edit sandline international spicer calls sierra leone affair ethical . bbc news . 5 november 2005 . mercenaries in africa s conflicts . bbc news . 15 march 2004 . this sierra leone related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e this article about a company of the uk is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sandline international & oldid 720182773 categories private military contractorshistory of papua new guineahistory of sierra leonehistory of liberiamercenary units and formationssierra leone stubsunited kingdom company stubshidden categories articles needing additional references from december 2015all articles needing additional referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parameterspages using web citations with no urlall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran aislietuvi srpskohrvatski edit links this page was last modified on 14 may 2016 at 06 37 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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