Citizens-enforced arms embargo? Perhaps the new way to deal with the 
likes of Pa Mugabe

Malanding


  Arms for Zimbabwe May Turn Back


Jon Hrusa/European Pressphoto Agency

By CELIA W. DUGGER 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/celia_w_dugger/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
and DAVID BARBOZA 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/david_barboza/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
Published: April 23, 2008

JOHANNESBURG — As protests intensified across southern Africa against 
the delivery of a shipment of Chinese-made arms to Zimbabwe 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/zimbabwe/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>, 
the Chinese government said Tuesday that the ship carrying the arms — 
owned by a large state-owned company, COSCO — may return to China 
because of problems delivering the goods.

South Africa 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/southafrica/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>’s 
High Court Friday barred transport of the ammunition, rockets and mortar 
bombs across South Africa from the port of Durban to landlocked Zimbabwe 
after an Anglican archbishop argued they were likely to be used to crush 
the Zimbabwean opposition following a disputed Mar. 29 election.

South Africa’s dock workers also said through their union they would 
refuse to unload the shipment, a call backed up by the country’s 
powerful coalition of trade unions. On Friday, the ship, An Yue Jiang, 
left Durban for the open seas and on Tuesday South Africa’s Ministry of 
Defense said it lay somewhere off Africa’s west coast.

Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said at a press 
briefing in Beijing that the shipment was part of “normal military 
trade” between Zimbabwe and China and called on other nations not to 
politicize the issue. But acknowledging the resistance to the shipment, 
she said China was considering shipping the arms back to China

According to documents provided to South African authorities and leaked 
to journalists here, Poly Technologies, Inc., a Chinese state-owned arms 
company, was the maker of the arms, weighing 77 tons and worth $1.245 
million.

An impromptu coalition of trade unions, church leaders and 
nongovernmental organizations trying to stop delivery of the weaponry 
gained an important ally Monday when Levy Mwanawasa 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/levy_mwanawasa/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, 
who is president of Zambia and heads a bloc of 14 southern African 
nations, called on other countries in the region not to let the ship 
dock in their ports.

“He actually said that it would be good for China to play a more useful 
role in the Zimbabwe crisis than supplying arms,” a spokesman for the 
Zambian government, who asked not to be named, said Tuesday. “We don’t 
want a situation which will escalate the situation in Zimbabwe more than 
what it is.”

Mr. Mwanawasa’s statements, made to reporters as he returned from a 
regional conference in Mauritius, were remarkable because so few African 
heads of state have been openly critical of Zimbabwe. The bloc he heads, 
the Southern African Development Community, has come in for especially 
sharp criticism for failing to censure the Zimbabwean government for 
refusing to publish the results of the presidential election.

More than three weeks after an election in which the opposition is said 
by independent election monitors to have bested the governing party of 
84 year-old President Robert Mugabe 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/robert_mugabe/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, 
the autocrat who has led the country for 28 years, election officials 
have yet to release the results.

Human rights groups and the opposition have reported that the government 
is coordinating a violent crackdown on supporters of the opposition 
Movement for Democratic Change.

The criticism of China from an African leader comes at a sensitive time. 
China is simultaneously trying to win allies in Africa, a source of oil 
and other natural resources it needs to fuel its economic boom, and host 
the Olympic Games this summer without spawning international protests 
linked to its human rights record and policies in Tibet.

Shipping arms to Zimbabwe could further complicate China’s efforts to 
avoid harsh international criticism before the games.

The South African government, which was helping the ship clear customs 
in Durban last week before the ship left the port, has itself been 
harshly criticized by trade unions and nongovernmental organizations 
here for being complicit in getting weapons to Zimbabwe’s military when 
senior army officers are being accused of helping lead and coordinate 
suppression of the opposition.

The departure of the ship Friday from Durban for the open seas as 
authorities approached it to serve the court order spared the South 
African government the politically charged task of pushing for delivery 
of the weapons.

South African officials said last week that they could not interfere 
with the shipment because there was no trade embargo against Zimbabwe.

Themba Gadebe, a spokesman for South Africa’s Ministry of Defense, said 
Tuesday that the ship lay somewhere off the west coast of Africa, though 
he did not know exactly where.

“It’s not in our South African waters," he said. “We are not policing 
that particular ship.”

Namibia and Angola lie north of South Africa along the west coast. Both 
are allies of Mr. Mugabe’s and neither has transport trade unions 
affiliated with the International Transport Workers Federation, which is 
coordinating efforts to block the unloading of the arms.

Sprite Zungu, an official with the federation, said Tuesday that he had 
had trouble establishing contact with Angolan union officials because 
they speak Portuguese, a language he does not know, he said.

But he sent an e-mail in English to union officials, care of Angolan 
port officials, asking workers there to show solidarity with workers in 
South Africa and Zimbabwe.

“It’s clear those weapons will be used against the people who won the 
elections,” Mr. Zungu said he wrote in the e-mail.

Celia W. Dugger reported from Johannesburg and David Barboza from Shanghai.

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