Non-Subscriber Extract
China may recall arms shipment to Zimbabwe
23 April 2008
The Chinese vessel - An Yue Jiang - had first courted controversy in South Africa, where it had hoped to offload its cargo at the busy Durban port. Although it had initially secured permission from authorities in South Africa, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) mobilised its workers, who refused to unload the cargo.
On 21 April, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa also appeared to speak out against the shipment, with Zambia's state-owned Daily Mail newspaper quoting the president as praising South Africa and Mozambique for not allowing the cargo to be offloaded via their territories. President Mwanawasa, said: "I hope this will be the case with all the countries because we do not want [to] escalate the situation in Zimbabwe."
Although China has been asked by international actors such as the United States to halt the shipment due to the current post-election tensions in Zimbabwe, a decision to potentially recall the vessel is far more likely to have been influenced by the current African stand against the movement of weapons to Zimbabwe, as well as potentially by China not wanting to draw further criticism ahead of the Olympic Games.