At the same time, the US State Department’s top Africa hand, Jendayi Frazer, plans to visit the region this week to underscore US concerns about the shipment.
Frazer will try to persuade Zimbabwe’s neighbours to step up pressure on Robert Mugabe to publish results from the election.
US intelligence agencies are tracking the vessel, the An Yue Jiang, and American diplomats have been instructed to press authorities in at least four nations – South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Angola – not to allow it to dock, officials said.
On April 10, the arms shipment arrived at Durban, South Africa aboard the Chinese cargo ship. The ship’s owner was the parastatal Chinese Ocean Shipping Company and it was carrying cases of weaponry and ammunition in six containers. The shipper of the arms was Poly Technologies Inc. of Beijing, China, the delivery address on the shipping documents was the Zimbabwe Defence Force, Harare, and the point of origin on the cargo manifest was Beijing, China. The cargo consisted of 3,080 cases of arms contained in six containers.
[xhead]Legal action
Legal action to stop this Chinese arms consignment was taken on April 18 by concerned South Africans with the support of human rights legal organisations in a bid to constrain the authorities from allowing transhipment of the arms through South Africa to Zimbabwe.
The application was brought in the Durban High Court on the grounds of South African national law, which prohibits arms transfers that may contribute to internal repression or suppression of human rights and fundamental freedom or to governments that systematically violate or suppress human rights and fundamental freedoms. An interim ruling was issued to confine the arms to Durban harbour pending a final court hearing, but the ship sailed away.
Many governments, including in the SADC region, and organisations worldwide are appealing for the arms transfer to be prevented, but it is feared that the arms cargo may be delivered to Zimbabwe through another route.
Two officials said Washington’s effort to block the ship from unloading its cargo was now concentrated on Namibia and Angola and that both countries were being told that allowing the An Yue Jiang to dock could harm their relations with the United States.
There are fears that the arms could be used by Mugabe’s regime to give fire power to its clampdown on opposition supporters.
South Africa’s main trade union confederation has called on workers in other African countries to follow the example of South African dock and freight workers who said on Friday that they would not unload the ship or transport its cargo.
The State Department endorsed that position on Monday.
Given Zimbabwe’s current electoral crisis, we do share the concerns…that these arms could be used against individuals who are merely trying to freely express their political will, said Kurtis Cooper, a department spokesman.
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Post published in: News