Nowadays mercenaries only represent one section of the vast category of international volunteers who are defined lato sensu as individuals whose voluntary personal membership of an armed force involves certain elements of a foreign character. (29) In principle, what [p.578] distinguishes a mercenary from an international volunteer is the cause and the motive which lead him to join up, although this is not always easy to determine. (30) We will show that the present provision makes the pursuit of monetary gain virtually the determining factor in defining a mercenary, once the other conditions of the definition are fulfilled.