SW Radio Africa (London)
Tichaona Sibanda
21 May 2008
The Chinese government on Wednesday denied that a ship, the An Yue Jiang, from their country carrying arms has managed to offload its 'deadly cargo' to the regime in Harare.
Reports in the past week have suggested that the cargo was offloaded either in Angola or Congo, Brazzaville, and Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga last week confirmed that the cargo had indeed arrived in the country.
In early April, South African port workers refused to offload the military hardware destined for Zimbabwe from the An Yue Jiang, saying the weapons would be used to deepen the country's political crisis.
On Wednesday, Matonga seemed to backtrack on his earlier statement saying it was a defence issue that, 'I would not want to comment on this, except to say that as we are not under any arms embargo we will continue to source our arms requirements in a regular and official manner.'
But China's Foreign Ministry said the An Yue Jiang was on its way back to China, and denied reports that the weapons had arrived in Zimbabwe.
'These reports are baseless and purely fictitious. The Chinese side has already said many times that the weapons sold to Zimbabwe will return on the An Yue Jiang. The ship is currently on its way back to China,' the ministry said in a statement.
Political analyst Isaac Dziya said the issue has become so confusing it was now difficult to determine the truth. He said if the Chinese government is to save itself from international backlash because of the Olympics games, then it is crucial for them to provide proof that the ship has indeed returned to China with its cargo.
'The Chinese could be telling the truth, but on the other hand, the regime could have received another cargo of arms, which might have been flown into the country,' Dziya said.
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