With the arms freighter An Yue Jiang reportedly returning to China, the Zimbabwean military is being forced to review how it ships arms to the country.
The South African Press Association (Sapa) reported that the ship had set off home. It had run up against a High Court interdict in South Africa and the threat of trade union ”blacking” action at ports throughout the region.
US state department spokesperson Tom Casey confirmed at a media briefing in Washington that the United States government had been in ”contact” with the Chinese government and governments in Southern Africa on the ”subject of this vessel” on Tuesday this week.
Casey said the state department was ”glad to have seen statements from the Chinese government saying that the vessel may in fact now be recalled back to China”. The state department had conveyed to the Chinese its belief that it was inappropriate, given the ”political upheaval” in Zimbabwe, ”for anyone to be adding extra tinder to that situation by providing additional weapons to Zimbabwe security forces”.
Last Friday the An Yue Jiang, carrying 77 tonnes of Chinese arms, fled Durban harbour without berthing after it had got wind of a Durban High Court order for the seizure of the weapons.
The An Yue Jiang also faced the blacking of its cargo by Durban dockers belonging to Cosatu’s transport affiliate, Satawu.
The ship then made for the west coast, but was thwarted again when the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) mobilised and received assurances from affiliates in Mozambique, Angola and Namibia that they would also refuse to handle the weapons.
”We can confidently say that there is no port in Southern Africa where this ship will be able to unload its cargo,” said ITF spokesperson Sam Dawson.
Satawu’s action was part of a broad Southern African civil society response involving churches and human rights lawyers in the region.
The High Court interim order to confine the weapons to Durban harbour, pending a final court hearing on April 25, stemmed from an urgent court application by Anglican Bishop Rubin Phillip and Diakonia Council of Churches executive Patrick Kearney in terms of the National Conventional Arms Control Act.
The Act prohibits arms transfers that may contribute ”to internal repression or suppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms” or ”to governments that systema-tically violate or suppress human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
The South African Litigation Centre worked with the ITF to notify a Southern African network of church groups, legal organisations and unions of the An Yue Jiang’s retreat from Durban harbour and the possibility of it berthing in one of 32 harbours south of the equator with the right capacity.
SALC director Nicole Fritz said the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa was a vital network in gaining assurances from transport unions to prevent the An Yue Jiang unloading its cargo and bringing ”diplomatic pressure on various leaders”.
Zimbabwean officials blame the setback on ”bad timing” which followed close international scrutiny of President Robert Mugabe’s government after last month’s elections.
Mugabe’s critics believe he ordered the ammunition to deal with possible civil commotion. But official documents obtained by the Mail & Guardian show that the deal was clinched in September last year between representatives of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Chinese arms broker, Polytechnologies.
The documents confirm that the consignment comprises three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1 500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3 000 mortar rounds.
Copies of the documents, obtained from a senior military source, show that Polytechnologies has supplied arms to Zimbabwe in the past.
The weapons should have been delivered in December, the source said, but ”red tape” had delayed the issue of permits the army needed to land the arms on Zimbabwean soil.
After reports that it was initially heading towards Mozambique on Friday evening the vessel changed course and moved back down South Africa’s east coast towards Cape Town.
”The last sight we had of it was at around 5pm on Tuesday when it was south-east of the Cape of Good Hope heading in a north-westerly direction,” said Stephen Olley, assistant manager of casualties at Lloyd’s Marine Intelligence Unit, which has been monitoring the ship’s movements by satellite.
It was travelling at a reduced speed of 11 knots an hour, Olley said, and appeared to have switched off its satellite responder, ”effectively becoming invisible to us”.
Dawson said the ITF had negotiated with China Ocean Shipping Company and the Chinese government to recall the ship.
”There are only two things which we will accept: that the ship returns to Chinese waters; or it is allowed to refuel in a southern African port while its cargo is subject to injunction, before it returns to Chinese waters.”
The Zimbabwean military source conceded on Tuesday it was increasingly likely that the ship would return to China. To land the arms, Zimbabwe would be burdened with ”astronomical costs” related to additional freight charges as the ship has been on the water for a week longer than anticipated.
Zimbabwe would also face costs related to hauling the shipment to Zimbabwe from a new port.
”Even if the ship did find a friendly port, we would still have to find a way of reeling the arms in. At the moment there are very few options open to us,” the source said. ”Our whole system now has to be reviewed.”
There is no rail connection between Zimbabwe and Angola, meaning two loads of an Illyushin II-76 air carrier would be required to airlift the arms from the coast, said the source. Zimbabwe’s air force has one such aircraft in service, but the military would be discouraged by the cost of the airlift.
A Western arms embargo, coupled with plummeting production at Zimbabwe Defence Industries because of raw materials shortages and spares, has forced Zimbabwe to turn to China.
Up to two years ago ZDI supplied arms to clients across the world, including Western governments.
For a few (trillion) dollars more
While the Chinese ”ship of shame” was in headlong flight from Durban, there were rumours that other sensitive Zimbabwe-bound imports were sitting at the port, writes Niren Tolsi.
The Mail & Guardian was unable to confirm that containers stuffed with new Zim dollars, a remedy for 165 000% inflation, were awaiting transportation.
The British Sunday Times has reported that Munich-based Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is working flat out to deliver a staggering Z$17-trillion ($32-million) to the Zimbabwean Reserve Bank every week.
The Sunday Times alleged that the money was being used to buy votes and pay the army, military veterans and the notorious Green Bombers to conduct violent campaigns in rural Zimbabwe in the run-up to the March 29 elections.
More recent news reports suggest this flood of cash has continued unabated and that the money is being used to ensure that a run-off presidential election will yield a Mugabe victory.
Speaking to the M&G this week, G&D spokesperson Heiko Witzke said his company printed money for ”around 100 countries worldwide”, but he refused to confirm that Zimbabwe was one of them.
”We ensure our deliverables comply with national and international provisions from the United Nations, European Union, World Trade Organisation and World Bank. All our deliverables are in accordance with the applicable official regulations,” Witzke said.