Paul Fauvet
20 April 2008
Port Louis — The Mozambican Christian Council (CCM) wants the Chinese ship that is trying to unload weaponry for the Zimbabwean government to turn round and go home.
The ship, the "An Yue Jiang", attempted to unload its lethal cargo in the South African port of Durban on Friday, but South African dockworkers, with the full backing of the powerful union federation COSATU, refused to unload it. The ship was last seen heading in the direction of the Mozambique Channel and there are fears that it will attempt to unload the weapons in a Mozambican port, either Maputo or Beira.
It is reported that the consignment includes rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and AK-47 ammunition.
The CCM General Secretary, Rev Dinis Matsolo, who is one of the Mozambican civil society figures attending the SADC (Southern African Development Community) consultative conference on development and poverty under way in Mauritius, told AIM on Saturday that the CCM did not want the ship to dock in any Mozambican port.
He pointed out that, for more than a decade, the CCM has been collecting guns and destroying them, under its programme "Transform Guns into Hoes", a Mozambican take on the biblical injunction to turn swords into ploughshares.
"We want to get rid of guns", Matsolo declared. "We don't want these guns to be unloaded in Mozambique. They will be used to kill people".
The weaponry should "go back to China", he added. "We're tired of guns".
Matsolo said the crisis in Zimbabwe was a matter of concern for all SADC member states, and added the CCM's voice to those calling for the immediate release of the results from the presidential election held on 29 March. "Obviously the results should be published immediately", he said. "There is no logical reason to wait so long. This just fuels suspicions. It leads to fears that something is being cooked up. The people want to know the results".
"We have to listen to the voice of the people and respect it", he added."Leadership is not won by force".
He thought it entirely inappropriate for men such as outgoing President Robert Mugabe and his Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to suggest that opposition leaders are "sell-outs" or even "traitors". "This kind of language is not welcome", he said."There is no reason for this name-calling. This sort of thing has to stop. Instead, people should sit down and talk".
A second Mozambican civil society representative, Alfiado Zunguza, of the NGO "Justa Paz" (Just Peace), agreed with Matsolo. He though there should be action to stop the Chinese ship unloading weapons at either Maputo or Beira - but doubted this would happen, since the Mozambican trade unions are much weaker than their South African counterparts.
As for the elections, Zunguza too thought there was "no convincing argument for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission not to publish the results. He feared that the longer the results are delayed, the greater will be the potential for violence in Zimbabwe, with severe knock-on effects on the rest of the SADC region, including an increase in the number of Zimbabweans fleeing into neighbouring states.
Zunguza said that civil society in the region wants the SADC leadership to take a stronger position on Zimbabwe, "instead of just issuing declarations". In Zimbabwe, SADC should be concerned about "legality and respect for human rights".
It is by no means certain that the Chinese ship will go to a Mozambican port. An official source contacted by AIM said that, as of early Saturday morning, no request had been received for the ship to enter either Maputo or Beira.
It is hard to check the route of the "An Yue Jiang" because, according to a BBC report, the ship has turned off its transponder.
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