African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma said on Thursday it is not yet the time to impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe in the wake of its undecided presidential election.
”I do not think we have reached the stage of an arms embargo in Zimbabwe,” Zuma told journalists during a visit to London.
He said dock workers in Durban had ”correctly” refused to unload a Chinese ship carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe.
”That was a very appropriate response,” Zuma said, but added he would not currently support any moves for an arms embargo against the country.
The ship carrying the weapons was forced to abandon plans to offload in Durban after activists backed by dock workers won a court case that prevented it from transporting the load overland to the border with landlocked Zimbabwe.
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 an inventory published in South African newspapers.
After being faced with a similar response by neighbouring African countries, the vessel was reported on Tuesday to be sailing towards Angola, and possibly ”heading for home”.
However, on Thursday a Chinese government official said the ship was returning to China.
”To my knowledge, the Chinese company has decided to bring back the boat,” Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters.
The news came after the United States asked that China withdraw the weapons shipment destined for Zimbabwe, and halt further arms shipments to the increasingly isolated African regime.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Wednesday for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and warned President Robert Mugabe that the delay in announcing election results was ”unacceptable”.
”Because of what has happened in South Africa, where there is an arms shipment trying to get to Zimbabwe, we will promote proposals for an embargo on all arms to Zimbabwe,” Brown said. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa-dpa