China and Africa

No guns for Bob

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, April 22, 2008 12:05 PM

The 'An Yue Jiang' is a ship owned by China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO); it arrived in Durban, South Africa last week with a cargo of arms and ammunition for Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe.

Although the South African government initially said they had no right to interfere in a normal commercial transaction between China and Zimbabwe, the South African dock worker's union refused to unload the cargo. After South African lawyers caled on the government to intervene, a court order was sent out on a launch to the An Yue Jiang, but it had already departed South African coastal waters.

It seems that landlocked Zimbabwe will not be able to get hold of the shipment from China. AllAfrica.com reports that the "governments of both Mozambique and Tanzania have refused to allow a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe to offload its cargo in their ports".

Nor does it look like the ship will unload its cargo on Africa's Atlantic coastline at one of Nambia's ports. IOL.co.za reports: "There has been no request by a Chinese ship carrying arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe to dock in either of Namibia's two ports, Namibian port authorities said on Monday."

UPDATE:
Three new pieces of news:
- AFP says the ship may head for Angola, China's biggest foreign supplier of oil and a long time ally of Mugabe's government.
- Reuters says that China says the ship may be recalled if it is not allowed to unload anywhere.
- Xinhua reports: Zimbabwe 'free to source arms from any country'

UPDATE 2:
Namibia's Legal Assistance Centre:

Legal action planned if ship carrying weapons bound for Zimbabwe enters Namibia's port

It is reported that the vessel, which has applied for bunkering fuel at Walvis Bay, Namibia tomorrow morning (22 April 2008)

South Africa's Sunday Times (April 23):

Chinese ship disappears

The position of the ship, the An Yue Jiang, was last plotted on Tuesday, when it was heading northwest at about 10 knots, about 40km southeast of the Cape of Good Hope.

South Africa's IOL.co.za:

US asks China to call ship back

The An Yue Jiang had apparently abandoned its attempt to dock in Namibia or Angola, and turned around to head back around the South African coast.

"The vessel is 57 nautical miles south of the Cape of Good Hope," said Lloyd's MIU assistant manager in the casualty department, Stephen Olley, when it was spotted on Tuesday afternoon.

"It looks as if she's heading eastbound, possibly towards Dar es Salaam."

AllAfrica.com (April 24): Zimbabwe: China Recalls Weapons Shipment

Comments on No guns for Bob

looks like Mr. Mugabe is running out of friends.

Old, but still hilarious youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b6BxywQD2c

Posted by: bocaj | April 22, 2008 1:06 PM

The Chinese don't need a dock. In classic snakehead illegal immigrant method, they'll merely beach the ship and have hundreds of coolies (be they Chinese or natives) offload the weapons by hand and then truck them inland. The revolution LIVES!!

Posted by: Hunxuer | April 22, 2008 1:14 PM

best news i'll read all week... ... ...and it's only tuesday!

hurray for South African civil society!

Posted by: b. | April 22, 2008 5:12 PM

Good move by the South Africans, But what's to stop Bob from flying the arms in to Zimbabwe?

Posted by: THM | April 22, 2008 8:29 PM

These are posts from china.com forum and sina.com.cn (in Chinese):

link, link

They both mentioned "有关合同是去年签署的，与津国内最近的局势变化无关" (The contract was signed last year, and has no relation to recent turbulence of Zimbabwe).

The actual date of signing is not indicated, however.

And it's said that Chinese armymen were seen in Mutare with 70 Zimbabwe armymen. This leads to suspicion and guess about China's role in Zimbabwe. The reason is
"这10个人只是中国国防大学派往津巴布韦参谋学院任教的10名教官。参谋学院按照教学计划的安排，在14日组织该学院来自南部非洲国家的70多名学员（都是高级军官）和10名中国教官开始对津巴布韦的几座主要城市进行参观访问。"
(These 10 army official are visiting teachers from China National Defense University to Zimbabwe Staff College. According to teaching plan, in Apr 14, 70 students (high level officials) from various south African countries and 10 Chinese teaching official begin a visit to some main cities of Zimbabwe).

The information source implies not only army officials of Zimbabwe are there, but also of other countries. I translated it explicitly.

My note: The visiting teachers were sent to Zimbabwe first in 2004-01-12. (Information source: link)

It's more likely an inopportune coincidence.

Posted by: Lark In Cloud | April 24, 2008 12:43 PM

link

The ship arrived at Angola, and offloaded cargo for Angola.

(beware the sina news is censored, so information is sparse)

link for reference.

Posted by: Lark In Cloud | April 28, 2008 3:08 PM

Larki in Cloud:

accounts elsewhere suggest that the cargo was NOT unloaded:

In a slap to Zimbabwe, its longtime ally Angola announced Saturday that a Chinese ship bearing arms for Zimbabwe would not be allowed to unload the weapons while it docked in Luanda, the Angolan capital.

Posted by: b. | April 28, 2008 7:28 PM

@b.

According to information current available, the ship carries cargo for both Angola and Zimbabwe. The sina news implies the cargo for Angola is for construction.

The cargo for Angola is unloaded, but cargo for Zimbabwe is not allowed to unload at this time.

nytimes: "Angola’s decision — it said it had allowed the ship to unload cargo meant for Angola, just not the weapons — brought the latest and the most surprising evidence of success in the international pressure campaign against the Zimbabwean government."

BTW, I feel that one sided consensus is useless and harmful for resolving the problem of Zimbabwe.

"And for the first time since the election, the group said it had also documented instances of retaliatory violence by supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, though they still are far fewer in number than attacks instigated by the state."

The "retaliatory" wording is suspicious.

I think it's wise to delay the delivery of arms to Zimbabwe. But the current pressure to An Yue Jiang will not work. It just hits wrong nail.

Posted by: Lark In Cloud | April 29, 2008 2:35 AM