Zim plane mystery continues

2004-03-09 09:50

Pretoria - The impounding of an aircraft, said to be carrying weapons and mercenaries, by Zimbabwean authorities in Harare was still shrouded in mystery on Tuesday.

The South African high commissioner to Zimbabwe, Jerry Ndou, is to meet Zimbabwean officials on Tuesday regarding the incident, and allegations that among the 64 men on board are South Africans, foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said on Tuesday morning.

South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act prohibits the involvement of South Africans in military activities outside South Africa without authorisation from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee.

News24's partner Beeld reported on Tuesday that intelligence sources said the plane could have been on its way to West Africa, perhaps headed for a threatening coup in Equatorial Guinea, a small former-Spanish colony wedged between Cameroon and Gabon.

Its capital, Malabo, is on an island off Cameroon's coast. Oil was recently discovered in its waters.

Technical

The newspaper also indicated that the elderly cargo plane originated in South Africa and may have been forced to land in Harare because of a technical problem.

The plane's origins continued to perplex.

SABC radio reported it was registered to a South African company; Zimbabwe claimed it was US-registered. This was denied by the US State Department, but a South African aviation expert said the aircraft's registration number, N4610, was definitely American.

An initial check of US Federal Aviation Administration records showed N4610 to be registered to Kansas-based Dodson Aviation Inc., but a Dodson official said it sold the plane about a week ago to an African company called Logo Ltd.

The aircraft, a Boeing 727-L100, is being detained at a Zimbabwean military air base after it was discovered to be carrying mercenaries and military equipment, according to the Zimbabwean government and state media.

State television bulletins, however, showed no sign of arms in the aircraft.

Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said the plane had been detained at Harare International Airport at 19:00 on Sunday after its owners made a false declaration of its cargo and crew. He did not name the owners.

However, state television news showed a large plain white aircraft with a blue stripe along the side and bearing the registration N4610.

Military police were shown going through piles of boots and colourful training shoes, blue kitbags, hand-held radios, satellite telephones, loud hailers, sleeping bags, bolt cutters, sledgehammers, a small pepper spray and a bright orange dinghy, but there were no sign of firearms, ammunition or explosives.

The bulletin described the equipment as of the type "normally used by commandos on specialised missions".

It said air force, army and bomb disposal experts were still examining the cargo "to determine whether there is possibly arms of war".

- SAPA