Sunday, June 29, 2008
Olympic-grade Evil
"let’s you and him fight"
In April, the Chinese cargo ship An Yue Jiang, believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of small arms, including assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, was docked outside Durban with arms bound for Zimbabwe.
...Dockers in Durban had refused to unload the ship while a court in the city ruled that the shipment could not be transported across the country to land-locked Zimbabwe; laws in South Africa prohibit the supply of arms to “governments that systematically violate, or oppress… human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
...Intelligence sources in South Africa and business sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that the arms were, however, eventually secretly unloaded at two African ports: Luanda, the Angolan capital and Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo. A commercial carrier is then believed to have flown the two arms shipments to Harare, though other unconfirmed reports say the ship left South Africa bound for China with its cargo intact.
The M&G can reveal that in recent years:
Armaments to the value of $237 401 (R3,3-million) were privately transferred from South Africa to Zimbabwe, according to 2004 and 2005 figures.The South African defence department donated Dakota aircraft engines worth millions to Zimbabwe, while Armscor transferred spares to get Zimbabwean military choppers flying again.
Zimbabwean soldiers and flying instructors have been trained by the South African Defence Force and the South African Air Force.
The trade records show that in 2004 South Africa exported about 2,6 tonnes of revolvers and/or pistols, another 2,5 tonnes of other firearms, between four and 7,5 tonnes of cartridges and what appear to be parts for military vehicles.
These armaments were transferred in the run-up to and aftermath of Zimbabwe’s 2005 parliamentary polls, which were marked by violence.
*Somebody* likes the chaos…
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