Zim arms ship destination unclear
22/04/2008 14:42  - (SA)  

Tanks spark Zim arms fears Zim arms shipment may be recalled US tries to halt arms shipment Zim defends right to buy arms Arms ship 'not in SA waters' Where is Zim arms ship? Zim denies armed militia claims

Johannesburg - The destination of a Chinese ship loaded with a controversial cargo of arms intended for Zimbabwe remained unclear on Tuesday but the agent handling the ship said its original plan was to stop in Durban and then Angola.

"According to the documentation, the next calling port is Angola. This vessel is causing a lot of attention. The information is very sensitive," said Wang Kun Hui, representative of the Cosren shipping agency in Durban.

However, he told News24 it was unclear what the next destination would be, as planning was changed when it did not stop in Durban, and this did not mean it would still stop in Angola. The documentation in his hands was made before the ship arrived in Durban.

Plans to offload in SA 'abandoned'

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was a long-time ally of Zimbabwe's veteran President Robert Mugabe, who was fighting to stay in power after parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29.

The ship, the An Yue Jiang, was believed to be carrying assault rifle ammunition, mortar rounds and rocket propelled grenades, according to official ship documents published in a South African newspaper last week.

The ship was forced to abandon plans to offload in Durban last week after activists won a court case, which prevented it from getting permission to transport the load overland to the Zimbabwe border.

Were the weapons to be offloaded in Angola, they would then most likely have to be flown into landlocked Zimbabwe as the countries' common neighbour, Zambia, was strongly opposed to the arms reaching Harare.

"I am glad that South Africa has refused them ... and I hope that will be the case" with all other countries, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa was quoted as saying by state media on Tuesday.

"We don't want to escalate the situation in Zimbabwe more than what it is," said Mwanawasa, current chairperson of the Southern African Development Community, which had taken on a mediating role in Zimbabwe.

(Additional reporting by News24)

 

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