Christof Maletsky
25 April 2008
Windhoek — CHINA has caved in to international pressure and recalled the 'ship of shame' carrying an arms shipment for Zimbabwe, which has been sitting on a time bomb since the March 29 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The ship, An Yue Jiang, is carrying 77 tonnes of assault rifle ammunition, mortars and rifle grenades.
It was feared that the arms could be used to crack down on opposition party members in Zimbabwe.
No results have been announced for the presidential vote - a sure sign analysts say that President Robert Mugabe did not win - while the outcome of a parliamentary poll, which the opposition won, is also in doubt because of partial recounts carried out at the behest of the losing ruling party.
The recount is widely seen as a manoeuvre by Zanu-PF to manufacture a win.
In a statement yesterday, the Chinese embassy in Windhoek said the shipping company Cosco, a state-owned shipping firm, had confirmed that the arms would not be offloaded in any African country and would not be delivered to Zimbabwe.
Opposition against offloading the vessel's lethal cargo has mounted since the An Yue Jiang arrived at Durban in South Africa last week.
It left South African waters last Friday and was variously reported to be heading for Walvis Bay and Angola.
For a short while it literally vanished off the radar screen.
Cosco, owners of the An Yue Jiang, was contracted by a Chinese company to deliver the weapons to Zimbabwe.
It is carrying three million rounds of assault rifle ammunition, 3 000 mortar rounds and 1 500 rocket-propelled grenades, according to its inventory, published in South Africa.
Despite documentary evidence to the contrary, China argued that the contract was signed last year and had nothing to do with the latest unrest in Zimbabwe following last month's elections.
The Chinese ship sparked widespread international condemnation after it tried to offload the arms in the South African port of Durban last week.
Activists went to court and obtained an order preventing it from transporting the load overland to Zimbabwe.
Dock workers also said they would refuse to offload the arms.
The ship then left the Durban harbour in the hope of docking at Walvis Bay or Lobito in Angola.
However, the Legal Assistance Centre of Namibia announced well in advance that it was poised to get a court order to stop An Yue Jiang from offloading and using the country for transit purposes.
They were supported by unions such as the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Natau) and the Trade Union Congress of Namibia, an umbrella federation of independent unions.
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) also went on an international campaign against the ship.
On Wednesday, the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, Zephania Kameeta, made it clear that he would support any court action by the LAC.
'CAUTIOUS'
Yesterday the ITF gave a "cautious welcome" to indications by the Chinese Foreign Ministry that the ship was "likely to return home without attempting to unload".
However, the London-headquartered global union federation noted that the Chinese government had again deferred the final decision to Cosco, the ship's owners, and that the company had not yet made a definite announcement that the arms mission was being aborted.
Cosco has given an assurance to the ITF that it was "actively resolving this matter".
"We hope that this will bring this affair to a close, and are ready, if appropriate, to stand down the international trade union operation to stop this deadly shipment reaching Zimbabwe," ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said.
He said the lesson from the ship experience was that when governments refused to do what they should, it was in the power of ordinary people to do what had to be done.
"We will draw on that experience if we learn that any further attempts are being made to hand Mugabe's thugs the weapons they would doubtless use against the people of Zimbabwe," he said.
The arms consignment also prompted calls this week for an international arms embargo against Zimbabwe.
"China is very concerned about the current situation in Zimbabwe.
We think that maintaining stability and avoiding further deterioration of the situation in this country is of prime importance right now," the Chinese embassy in Windhoek said in its statement.
It expressed the hope that Zimbabwe would find a proper solution to the election dispute through dialogue.
However, China also took a swipe at other arms-exporting countries, saying it only accounted for "a very small share" of the world's weapon trading.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has ranked China at number 10, the United States at number one and the United Kingdom at number six on a list of the world's biggest arms exporters, the embassy said.
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Onesoulzim1, who killed some thousands of DEFENSELESS Zimbabweans in Mandebeleland just 20 years ago not to mention the deaths currently perpetrated on people in rural areas who voted for the opposition? I suppose if the killings are done by Mugabe and his followers and it does not involve deaths of any members of your family then it is ok. You are only concerned about protecting THINGS.What about protecting HUMAN LIFE. Why live in fear of the West? They will take THINGS from us and we too will take THINGS from them - that is trade. Our African governments and peoples… [Read Full Text]
Awt-independent; get it right for the first time on blaming Britain and its cousins on Zim’s situation. Firstly it is evident that the Zimbabwean electorate no longer has total faith in the future of Mugabe administration, I don’t, my leader has seen his golden days and the sun is setting on him. Change is definitely coming. It is that change which the gluttonous British and their kith and kin want to take advantage of after having been overwhelmed by Mugabe on African land repossession. Britain and America virtually control all international finance institutions through their structures. Since 1997 IMF/World… [Read Full Text]