New arms for Zim being flown in

2008-04-21 23:13

Erika Gibson

Pretoria - A second shipment of considerably-more-sophisticated Chinese weaponry destined for Zimbabwe will be flown to Harare from China within the next week.

It was going to be taken by aircraft to expedite the delivery and to circumvent the controversy around last week's shipment by sea.

The decision apparently was made on Monday by Zimbabwean military generals during an emergency meeting.

According to Beeld's sources, the meeting took place because the generals apparently were worried that any further delays would run the delivery of the really big guns into the ground.

The Zimbabwean military's operational planning could also suffer as a result.

Orders placed three days after poll

Both orders were apparently placed only weeks ago. The paperwork for the ship carrying the weapons, the An Yue Jiang, was finalised in Beijing on April 1 - three days after the Zimbabwean elections.

The step to rather use an aircraft apparently was taken to keep the nature and extent of the load secret from the outside world.

"There is no way that anyone is going to determine what will be delivered," said Beeld's source.

"What is known is that the kind of weaponry which is manufactured in Shenzhen, in the second consignment, is highly sophisticated and not just the kind of basic mortars and ammunition that's on the ship," said Beeld's source.

Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, is one of China's core industrial manufacturing cities.

Shortly after Durban High Court issued an order against the transport of the weapons across South African territory, the ship fled.

Since then, it had sailed around Cape Point and was already in Namibian territorial waters by early Monday morning.

Satawu makes appeal to African countries

The Zimbabwean generals decided that this consignment could take its time from Luanda, but that the delivery of the second consignment could not be postponed.

In the meantime, the South African Transport Allied Workers Union (Satawu) made an appeal in the interest of peace in the region to all countries in Africa not to allow the Chinese ship into its harbours.

Satawu's general secretary Randall Howard said the pressure that had been placed on the Mozambican government by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) was partially responsible for the fact that the country had also refused the ship entry.

Howard appealed to Cosatu, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and the ITF to sustain the pressure so that wherever the ship docked, harbour workers or truck drivers could not be forced to unload the shipment.

René Lötter in Cape Town reported that, according to a source, the Namibian government had said that if such a request were made, the An Yue Jiang would be welcome to offload its cargo in Namibia and use the infrastructure to transport the weapons to Zimbabwe.

Letters of opposition

Namibia's Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) said in a statement that it planned to go to court if it appeared as if Namibia were to be used as a transit route.

LAC director Norman Tjombe confirmed that the centre had sent letters to the Namibian Port Authority (Namport) and to the ministry of defence to express its opposition.

By Monday evening, it seemed as if the ship would stop at the Namibian port town Walvis Bay only to refuel on its way to Angola.

- Beeld