Thread: Weapons for Zimbabwe

sounds like the arms have landed..poor Zimbabweans

Looking at this issue, I was reminded of an old motto used in SA some years ago (before 1994!). Maybe it will now become applicable in Zimbabwe as well considering HE President Dr. R G Mugabe has managed to surreptitiously obtain the Chinese arms - albeit in a slightly changed form:

One MDC - One bullet

The weapons destined for Zimbabwe have arrived in Harare, The Weekender reported.


The report said the Zimbabwean government confirmed that 3-million rounds of assault rifle ammunition, 3000 mortar rounds and 1500 rocket-propelled grenades - ordered from the Chinese government - had arrived in Harare.

The South African government denied media reports that it assisted in the delivery of the arms by fuelling the Chinese vessel, An Yue Jiang, that was transporting the arsenal.


There were fears that Robert Mugabe was planning to use force to storm back to power in the presidential runoff election to be held on June 27.


He had deployed the army, police and intelligence units across Zimbabwe to campaign for him through intimidation and coercive tactics, the report said.


The Weekender quoted a Mozambican online newspaper, Canal de Moçambique, which reported that the ship had been refueled by the SAS Drakensberg off the coast of South Africa before sailing north to offload its deadly cargo.


It reported that the ship was offloaded at Ponta Negra in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, Zimbabwean government officials said it was offloaded in Angola.


Canal de Moçambique reported that President Thabo Mbeki gave "a direct instruction" to Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George to send the SAS Drakensberg to refuel the An Yue Jiang.


Presidential spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga dismissed the reports, saying "it seems that the season of propaganda is upon us".


George said he had no instruction from Mbeki to dispatch the SAS Drakensberg and that the allegations had no substance.


However, the Canal de Moçambique article also said the arms were flown to Harare in an Ilyushin Il-76 belonging to Avient Aviation, a freight charter airline based in Zimbabwe but registered in the UK.


This was confirmed by government officials in Harare, The Weekender said.


Zimbabwe’s Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga confirmed the weapons have been delivered.


The Angolan government’s assistance came after an appeal by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, to member states to bar the delivery of the ammunition to Zimbabwe, saying the arms could deepen the country’s election crisis.


The US and British governments had also exerted concerted pressure on the SADC and China to stop the ship from docking in the region.


The ship has been spotted off the coast of Port Elizabeth, The Weekender said.

I say, old chap! Don't you READ what has been posted. This is a word for word copy of what The Shebeen has had for the last four days or so.


You are horribly behind the times. By now that is history!

Sorry man <<< i copy the wrong text for the forum >>>

(They can't make up their minds. First they crow boldly that the arms are in Harare; now they deny it)


The Zimbabwe government Thursday denied taking delivery of a consignment of weapons from China after a ship carrying the arms was prevented from unloading its cargo.

"The shipment did not dock and there has not been delivery (of the equipment) as yet," Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi told journalists in Harare.

"The shipment is part of a routine equipment for our defence. Zimbabwe has always procured equipment from the People's Republic of China," Sekeramayi said.

A South African newspaper reported over the weekend that the weapons had reached their destination, although the report was unclear over whether the arms had been offloaded in Angola or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ship identified as the An Yue Jiang, which belongs to COSCO, a Chinese state-owned shipping firm, was forced to abandon plans to offload the arms in the South African port of Durban last month after workers refused to carry out the work.

Sekeramayi described the controversy which surrounded the ship's failure to dock as a "hullabaloo."

There were fears that the arms could be used to crack down on opposition supporters following parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe in March, both of which the Movement for Democratic Change won.

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 a South African newspaper.

TerraDaily/AFP (Harare)