troung

China defends Zimbabwe arms shipment headed for Angola by Dario Thuburn
Tue Apr 22, 10:46 AM ET

China defends Zimbabwe arms shipment headed for Angola - Yahoo! News

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A Chinese ship loaded with arms intended for Zimbabwe was headed to Angola, the agent handling the ship said on Tuesday, as China defended the shipment against international criticism.

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"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.

Asked where exactly in Angola the ship was headed, Wang replied: "Luanda."

The ship, the An Yue Jiang, was carrying three million rounds of assault rifle ammunition, 3,000 mortar rounds and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, according to its inventory, published by a South African newspaper.

The ship was forced to abandon plans to offload the arms in the South African port of Durban last week after activists won a court case which prevented it from transporting the load overland to the Zimbabwe border.

There were fears that the arms could be used to crack down on protests following parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe last month, both of which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says it won.

The shipment was also likely to inflame a debate about China's growing diplomatic and economic role in Africa, which has focussed on the country's links with the Sudanese government, accused of human rights abuses in Darfur.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Tuesday defended the shipment, saying she hoped there would be no attempt to "politicise" the arms cargo, although she hinted that China may be forced to take it back.

"This is normal trade in military products between the two countries. The relevant contract was signed last year and has nothing to do with the situation in Zimbabwe," she told reporters in Beijing.

"As Zimbabwe could not receive the cargo as scheduled, China Ocean Shipping Corp had to give up the Durban port and is now considering carrying back this cargo," she said, referring to the state-owned COSCO shipping firm.

Zimbabwe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party, battling to stay in power after last month's disputed elections, has also defended the regime's right to buy weapons from any legal source.

"It's our sovereign right to defend ourselves, it's our sovereign right to buy weapons from any legitimate source worldwide and we don't need clearance from anyone," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said earlier.

Port authorities in Angola, where President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is a long-time ally of Zimbabwe's veteran leader Robert Mugabe, said on Monday they had not yet received any formal request for authorisation to dock the ship.

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 is strongly opposed to the arms reaching Harare.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, head of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is mediating in the political crisis in Zimbabwe, said he was "glad" that South Africa had refused the shipment.

"The Chinese can play a very useful role in Zimbabwe without the use of arms. We don't want to escalate the situation in Zimbabwe more than what it is," Mwanawasa was quoted as saying by state media on Tuesday.

Human rights lawyers in Namibia, which lies between South Africa and Angola and where the ship could be forced to stop for refuelling, said they would prevent any possible unloading of the arms in Namibian ports.

International trade unions have mounted a campaign to stop the ship from unloading its arms cargo and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre said it was tracking the ship through South Africa's territorial waters.

__________________
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

Ray

It is the politicisation that has saved Africa from internecine massacres!!

Uncle Hu is working overtime it appears!

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Exarecr

They are not Arms but projectiles of peace and percussion noise makers compliments of the peaceful Chinese Government. Most of the shipments are just to be stored in Angola because of the huge bumper crops in China which leave absolutely no space for any other storage. Holy cynicism Batman.......

Ray

troung

So true.

BTW in case you missed it the CCP has finally mastered walking on water and knows how many angels can dance on the tip of a pin.

gunnut

Maybe these arms are headed to the opposition party...

Afterall, CCP's heroes are rebels and the opposition forces.

I'm not being sarcastic...honest.

__________________
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

troung

Britain calls for Zimbabwe arms embargoStory Highlights
UK prime minister calls for worldwide arms embargo against Zimbabwe

Electoral commission carrying out recount of 23 legislative districts

Brown and ANC president agree African nations need to do more

Recount confirms result showing Mugabe's party had won lower house seat
Next Article in World »


Read VIDEO INTERACTIVE



JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Britain's prime minister Wednesday called for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and urged condemnation of the country's recent elections as initial results of an opposition-decried recount showed in favor of President Robert Mugabe's party.


Electoral officials count ballots in Domboshawa, near the capital of Harare on Saturday.

Gordon Brown's call came as a Chinese ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe headed to Angola after its cargo was blocked from transit across South Africa and pressure mounted on other African nations not to allow delivery.

"We will promote proposals for an embargo on all arms to Zimbabwe and at the same time, we ask all the African Union observers and international observers to make their views known about the unfairness of this election," Brown told the House of Commons.

The U.S. has asked South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Angola to not allow the ship carrying the arms to dock in their ports.

Brown said the international community should also turn the heat up on Zimbabwe's government over its handling of the country's March 29 parliamentary and presidential elections.

Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe claimed victory following the vote and have accused Mugabe of trying to cling on to power by ordering a partial parliamentary election recount they say will be manipulated in his favor.

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"What is happening in Zimbabwe -- failing to announce an election result, trying to rig an election result -- is completely unacceptable," Brown said.

"I call on the whole world to express its view that this is completely unacceptable to the whole of the international community."

Meanwhile, Brown also met with Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa's ruling party Wednesday, and the pair agreed that "something needs to be done" by African nations to help bring an end to the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Zuma, the ANC's president, said he needed to talk with South Africa President Thabo Mbeki before speaking about any specifics.

"We are agreed that the situation is not acceptable. Something needs to be done," said Zuma. "The prime minister [Brown] urged further intervention by Africa in general. I can't prescribe what needs to be done."

Zuma brushed off questions about Mbeki's previous statements that there was not a crisis in Zimbabwe.

"He does believe that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe," Zuma said. "He clarified those statements."

The results of the Zimbabwe's March 29 elections have not been announced. A recount is under way and some in the opposition party say violence and intimidation tactics have been used against people that did not vote for Mugabe. Officials in Mugabe's camp have denied those claims.

Zimbabwe's electoral commission released the first result Wednesday from a recount of 23 legislative districts.

The recount confirmed initial results showing that Mugabe's party had won a seat in the lower house of parliament. The seat is from one of 23 districts where Mugabe's party, ZANU-PF, has alleged irregularities.

ZANU-PF would regain a majority if the recount reverses the results in nine or more seats. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report

All About Zimbabwe • Robert Mugabe • Morgan Tsvangirai

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troung

Who said unions were evil?

The USA is of course still evil and yet so smart and dashingly handsome...

Chinese Arms to Zimbabwe Blocked
Wednesday, Apr. 23, 2008 By AP/DONNA BRYSON Article ToolsPrintEmailSphereAddThisRSSYahoo! Buzz (Johannesburg, South Africa) — Zimbabwe's regime got a taste of the international isolation critics say it deserves, with its neighbors blocking a shipment of Chinese arms to prevent them from being used against Robert Mugabe's opponents. China said Tuesday the weapons might be returned home.


Union, church and human rights leaders across southern Africa rallied against allowing the Chinese freighter An Yue Jiang to dock at ports in any of landlocked Zimbabwe's neighbors, and they were bolstered by behind-the-scenes pressure from the United States.

In the end, governments usually unwilling to criticize Mugabe barred the ship at a time when Zimbabwe's government is being accused of cracking down on dissenters.

On Tuesday, church leaders in Zimbabwe said people were being tortured, abducted and murdered in a campaign of retribution against opposition supporters following the March 29 election, and urged international intervention.

In Washington, the State Department said it had urged countries in southern Africa _ notably South Africa, Mozambique, Angola and Namibia _ not to allow the ship to dock or unload. It also asked the Chinese government to recall the vessel and not to make further weapons shipments to Zimbabwe until the postelection crisis is resolved.

China insisted the shipment of mortar grenades, ammunition and other weapons was part of "normal military product trade between the two countries," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"As far as I know, the carrier is now considering carrying back the cargo," she added.

Patrick Craven, spokesman for a South African trade union federation, which helped lead the campaign, called it a "historic victory" that he hoped would encourage Zimbabweans and lead to more grass-roots campaigns against Mugabe.

"So far the governments have clearly been lagging behind the people," Craven said. "We're hoping now they will wake up."

A spokesman for Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai welcomed the development. "It would be pleasing to the people of Zimbabwe to note that there has been solidarity on the continent to stop the arming of the (Mugabe) regime at the expense of the people," said the aide, Nelson Chamisa.

When the ship arrived in South Africa last week, the government said there was no legal reason to stop its cargo from being unloaded and shipped on to Zimbabwe. There is no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe.

The Southern Africa Litigation Center, a South Africa-based human rights group, persuaded a judge to bar the weapons from transiting South Africa to reach Zimbabwe. The ship then sailed away from South Africa, and private groups and government officials in Mozambique, Angola and Namibia also objected to the weapons.

Nicole Fritz, director of the center, said she believed Zimbabwe's neighbors were not changing policy but were responding to pressure from civic groups and the United States. She was particularly critical of South Africa, whose President Thabo Mbeki was chosen by regional leaders to mediate between Mugabe and his opponents and who has counseled against confronting Mugabe.

"The South African authorities' actions over this past week ... suggest that South Africa cannot be perceived to be a good faith mediator," she said, noting the Zimbabwean opposition has asked that Mbeki step aside.

Over 200 African bar associations, human rights groups and other independent organizations met Monday in Tanzania and issued a demand that the African Union get involved in Zimbabwe's crisis, saying the southern African regional grouping that had appointed Mbeki mediator is not doing enough.

The Zimbabwe crisis "is serious enough that the AU must get involved and it must de dealt with at a continental level because this is an issue that has strong implications for the continent," Eleanor Sisulu of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition told The Associated Press Tuesday.

The State Department also is urging governments in the region to step up pressure on Mugabe's government to release the long-delayed results of the election and said the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, would leave Washington Tuesday for talks in Angola, South Africa and Zambia.

The Bush administration also pressured Zimbabwe's neighbors to turn away the arms shipment.

"Right now, clearly, is not the time that we would want to see anyone putting additional weapons or additional material into this system when the situation is so unsettled and when we have seen real and visible instances of abuses committed by the security forces," deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

He added that China had been encouraged in a message delivered by U.S. diplomats in Beijing "to halt this shipment" and "to refrain from making additional shipments."

Mugabe's deputy information minister, Bright Matonga, said Tuesday his country had the right to acquire arms from legitimate sources. "We are not a rebel country," he told The Associated Press.

The opposition says post-election violence had displaced 3,000 people, injured 500 and left 10 dead.

Chamisa, the opposition spokesman, said he visited a hospital in southeastern Zimbabwe on Monday where he saw cases of people injured in postelection violence, including a pregnant woman who had a "wound in her womb" after being stabbed. He said he also saw an 85-year-old woman whose legs had been broken.

Mugabe's officials said such reports could not be confirmed, adding that if there had been such violence, the opposition could be to blame.

Associated Press writers Christopher Bodeen in Beijing, Celean Jacobson in Johannesburg and Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

sappersgt

I'm sure Mugagbe is saying, "Where's Victor Bout when you need him?"!

__________________
Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
(Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)

zraver

One of these days he is going to swing from a tree of suffer a high velocity cerebral hemorrhage.

troung

High chance that he will die in office or retire to somewhere and never go to trial.

xunil

William Gumede: A glimpse of African tigers | Comment is free | The Guardian

A glimpse of African tigers

Chinese investment in the continent could help fight poverty in ways western money never did

William Gumede The Guardian, Thursday April 24 2008

Ashipment of weapons from China destined for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is an obvious cause for the west to denounce Beijing's involvement in Africa. But western business and political leaders have already been watching China's re-engagement with the continent with trepidation. China is setting up Confucius schools, laying out roads and railways, and stitching together deals to buy its commodities - oil, platinum, gold and minerals. Perhaps not since the first wave of independence during the late 1950s has there been such a buzz in Africa. And crisis meetings, conferences and summits are being hurriedly put together as the US, the EU and Japan scratch their collective heads over how to respond.

China's investment may offer Africa the first real chance to lift itself out of poverty, not unlike postwar Europe under the Marshall Plan or the industrialisation of the Asian tiger economies, neither of which could have happened without US investment. Between 1945 and 1978, the US poured the equivalent of all the aid given to Africa into just one country, South Korea. This is the kind of commitment Africa needs.

The response to China's interest exposes western hypocrisy and perhaps betrays a sense that African countries are still considered colonial possessions. While the US, France and the UK have slashed or dubiously inflated aid figures, China is promising to double assistance to Africa by 2009. Western development aid is still mostly used to push donors' commercial interests, rather than poverty alleviation; much Chinese aid to Africa is likewise tied to business deals. But China is widening access to its markets for African products - something western governments have been reluctant to do - and has offered aid without onerous conditions.

China's involvement is not all positive, as the support given to Mugabe's regime shows. Its model of one dominant political party that quashes dissent is inspiring a number of African leaders just as the continent is seeing a proliferation of opposition parties and a mushrooming of civil movements. But African autocrats have also been helped by the US war on terror, allowing them to round up and imprison critics. The countries of most of Africa's longest-serving leaders - Togo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Cameroon, Mauritania, Guinea, Uganda and Swaziland - either have oil, or are partners in US anti-terror campaigns. So criticism of oil-rich regimes with dictatorial governments has been muted.

International NGOs and governments, including African ones, must tackle China's unwillingness to use its leverage with Sudan to end the conflict that has killed or displaced millions. But western firms' dodgy investments in Africa are still a political blind spot.

All that said, African governments must insist that trade pacts with China include clauses committing it to respect minimum labour rights, human rights and environmental standards. China needs the resources of the veldt just as much as Africa needs its money. To continue its head-spinning 9% growth rate, China's economy requires a deluge of commodities that can only be found in Africa in such quantities and so cheaply.

But to make the partnership work for them, African nations will have to be more hard-nosed. China is buying strategic assets cheaply and with few obligations. Most countries are exporting raw materials and importing labour-intensive manufactured goods from China. The rise in exports typically generates few jobs, while imports take them away. Africa must ensure that partnership deals boost its shrinking manufacturing industry and quickly diversify its economies. It must not again squander its riches.

· William Gumede is a senior associate and Oppenheimer fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford

gunnut

So when China plunders the land it's called "fighting poverty," but when the west does it it's called "colonialism?"

Albany Rifles

William Gumede is hardly a disinterested, unbiased observer.

Center for Global Development : Publications: U.S. Aid to Africa After the Midterm Elections? A "Surprise Party" Update

Center for Global Development : Publications: A Trickle or a Flood: Commitments and Disbursement for HIV/AIDS from the Global Fund, PEPFAR, and the World Bank's Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP)

AIDS Funding on the Ground in Nigeria : NPR

Some more balanced views.

Oh, and BTW, these are my tax dollars going there. This is not corporate money.

__________________
"Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves." TSGT Oddball, Tank Commander