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China's 'ship of shame' offloads
Dumisani Muleya, Hopewell Radebe and Chantelle Benjamin, The Weekender
May 17, 2008

http://www.businessday.co.za/weekender/article.aspx?ID=BD4A768171

The weapons destined for Zimbabwe have arrived in Harare — allegedly with some help from SA.

The Zimbabwean government has confirmed that 3-million rounds of assault rifle ammunition, 3000 mortar rounds and 1500 rocket-propelled grenades - ordered from the Chinese government - have arrived in Harare. The South African government flatly denies media reports that it assisted in the delivery of the 77 tons of arms by providing fuel for the Chinese vessel, An Yue Jiang, that was transporting the arsenal. There is fear that Robert Mugabe is planning to use force to storm back to power in the presidential runoff election that will be held on June 27. He has already deployed the army, police and intelligence units across Zimbabwe to campaign for him through intimidation and coercive tactics. The Movement for Democratic Change says at least 40 people, mainly its supporters, have been killed in violence since the March 29 elections. The Zimbabwean government disputes this figure, but has promised to curb the violence.

On Friday Mozambican online newspaper Canal de Moçambique reported that the "ship of shame" had been refuelled by the SAS Drakensberg off the coast of SA before sailing north to offload its deadly cargo. It reported that the ship was offloaded at Ponta Negra in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, Zimbabwean government officials say it was offloaded in Angola. Canal de Moçambique reports that President Thabo Mbeki gave "a direct instruction" to Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George to send the SAS Drakensberg to refuel the An Yue Jiang. It claims the SAS Drakensberg used its electronic equipment to jam radar and satellite communications while the ship was being fuelled as the An Yue Jiang was being tracked by Lloyds of London. Last month the Durban High Court granted an interim order preventing the unloading of the ship in SA. It did not prohibit the government from providing assistance to the vessel.

Presidential spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga dismissed the reports of the ship's refuelling, saying "it seems that the season of propaganda is upon us". George says he had no instructions from Mbeki to dispatch the SAS Drakensberg and that the allegations " have no substance whatsoever". However, the Canal de Moçambique article also says the arms were flown to Harare in an Ilyushin Il-76 belonging to Avient Aviation, a freight charter airline based in Zimbabwe but registered in the UK. This was confirmed by government officials in Harare. Two senior Zimbabwean ministers and army officers went to Angola three weeks ago to negotiate the offloading of the weapons , which were then flown to Harare. Zimbabwe's Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga confirms the weapons have been delivered.

The Angolan government's assistance comes after an appeal by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, to member states to bar the delivery of the ammunition to Zimbabwe, saying the arms could deepen the country's election crisis. The US and British governments had also exerted concerted pressure on the SADC and China to stop the ship from docking in the region. Trade union members in SA and Mozambique had vowed not to offload the shipment. South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union general secretary Randall Howard says unions and civil society organizations that succeeded in getting the ship out of South African and Mozambican waters would be disappointed if the reports that the weapons were offloaded in Angola and sent to Zimbabwe were true.

"If it is true, that would show a serious lack of respect for international solidarity (by Angola) and an injustice to the people of Zimbabwe," Howard says. "Both the Chinese government and Cosco (the ship's owners) have regrettably demonstrated that profiteering remains the overriding consideration, over human solidarity and saving lives." Nicole Fritz, director of the South African Litigation Unit, who went to court to impound the cargo, says she would be surprised if the arms were offloaded in Luanda, as human rights activists were at all times monitoring the ship's activities. She believes if the weapons were offloaded, this probably happened at Lobito, Angola, where there was less scrutiny by rights organizations and unions. "We know the ship stopped off at Luanda to refuel and to load food for the crew," she says. "Human rights experts were monitoring the ship's activity to ensure that the weapons were not offloaded." The ship has been spotted off the coast of Port Elizabeth.

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