Arms ship destination a mystery

2008-05-09 07:20

Durban - The location or future destination of a Chinese ship carrying arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe was unknown, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF) said on Thursday.

ITWF spokesperson in Durban, Sprite Zungu, said: "We are not 100% sure where the ship is going. We know that it left Luanda on May 4. That's all."

The ITWF had received conflicting reports of where the An Yue Jiang was headed. He said some reports had indicated the ship was headed to Point Noire in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).

Other reports indicated that the ship was headed back to China and would begin passing SA territorial waters by May 12.

Attempts to make contact unsuccessful

Earlier on Thursday the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said: "The vessel is now on its way to Congo-Brazzaville where we believe a further attempt will be made to offload the weapons."

Zungu said he could confirm that only cement and building materials were offloaded in Luanda.

Attempts to contact the ship's captain by radio phone were unsuccessful.

Nicole Fritz, the director of the SA Litigation Centre, said according to information the centre had, the ship was headed southwards.

The ship lifted anchor and sailed from Durban less than an hour after the Durban High Court on April 18 ordered that its controversial cargo could not be transported across SA to Zimbabwe.

The An Yue Jiang is a general cargo ship built in 1986, and sails under the Chinese flag. It has a crew of 28 Chinese seafarers, a gross tonnage of 11 115 tons, and is owned by the China Ocean Shipping Company.

- SAPA