DON'T FORGET ...
"Delivery of Weapons to Zimbabwe Thwarted"
"Southern African Nations Keep Chinese ****p From Unloading"
By Craig Timberg
Wa****ngton Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 23, 2008; A12
JOHANNESBURG, April 22 -- A Chinese ****p carrying weapons and
ammunition for Zimbabwe's military may be headed back home, re****ts
said, after repeated attempts to deliver its cargo were frustrated by
a coalition of legal activists, union workers and human rights groups.
The region's resistance to the ****pment, which drew praise from the
United States on Tuesday, marks a dramatic turn from southern Africa's
traditional embrace of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and its
reverence for national sovereignty.
It also signals the strength of South Africa's mounting backlash
against President Thabo Mbeki's traditionally deferential dealings
with Mugabe. The resistance from union workers, almost all of whom are
members of his African National Congress, was decisive in preventing
the ****p from unloading its cargo of bullets and mortars on schedule.
The 489-foot An Yue Jiang was near the Cape of Good Hope on Tuesday
night, headed northwest at a modest speed, according to Lloyd's Marine
Intelligence Unit, based in London. But Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that because the ****pment could not be
unloaded, despite being part of a "perfectly normal trade," the cargo
would probably return to China. Jiang added that she hoped the
incident would not be "politicized."
The ****p has sparked international concern at a time when the
political stalemate in Zimbabwe over the Mugabe government's failure
to release results from a March 29 presidential vote has turned
increasingly violent. There have been widespread re****ts of beatings,
torture and killings of opposition activists.
Rights activists have warned since last week that the cargo of the
****p, owned by the China Ocean ****pping (Group) Company, was part of
Mugabe's plan to intensify his crackdown. Union groups throughout
southern Africa have refused to unload the ****p or deliver its
contents to landlocked Zimbabwe. Authorities in Angola and Mozambique
have said the ****p is not welcome.
Zimbabwe officials have repeatedly defended their right to have the
weaponry delivered but have been frustrated so far.
"The ****p has become such a rallying point," said Nicole Fritz,
director of the Southern Africa Litigation Center, which has led the
legal assault on the ****pment. "It's become a focus of so many people
who have been frustrated about what's happening in Zimbabwe."
U.S. officials have been among those pressuring southern African
nations to block the delivery.
"We don't think it's appropriate at this point, given the political
upheaval that's occurring in Zimbabwe, for anyone to be adding extra
tinder to that situation by providing additional weapons to Zimbabwe
security forces," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told
re****ters Tuesday. "We're pleased to see that many countries in the
region refused to either accept this vessel in their ****ts or to
offload those weapons."
The An Yue Jiang first ran into trouble last week when news re****ts in
South Africa revealed its contents, including 3 million rounds for
AK-47 assault rifles. Zimbabwe's military has been chronically short
of ammunition -- and most other basic supplies -- in recent years as
the nation's economy has collapsed and inflation has surged past
100,000 percent.
A court in Durban, South Africa, where the ****p initially docked,
blocked its unloading in a tem****ary order that rights activists are
seeking to make permanent. Union workers have been at least as crucial
in hindering delivery. The ****p is also re****ted to be low on fuel.
Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit said in a news release Monday
evening, however, that the ****p still had numerous options. There are
32 ****ts capable of handling the load south of the equator in Africa,
it said. The ****p also has six cranes, making it possible to transfer
cargo at sea. The news release said that the Chinese Ocean ****pping
(Group) Company had two ****ps in the area capable of taking the
weapons on board. An airlift might also be possible.
The circuitous movements of the An Yue Jiang fixated South Africans as
the ****p moved north toward Mozambique, then back toward Angola before
disappearing from tracking mechanisms. Its reappearance Tuesday
evening, along with the Chinese Foreign Ministry's comments, spurred
cautious optimism that the weapons will never reach the Zimbabwean
military.
[Correspondent Jill Drew in Beijing contributed to this re****t.]
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042200504.html
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