Great Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe arms ship quits S Africa (From www.bbc.com)

A Chinese ship carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe has been forced to leave the South African port of Durban four days after failing to unload.

Earlier, a South African judge ruled that the cargo of rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and ammunition could not be transported overland.

Human rights groups had petitioned for a block on the arms and dockers had refused to unload the shipment.

Some fear Zimbabwe will use the arms to repress political opposition.

The country has yet to publish the results of its presidential election on 29 March, which the MDC opposition says was won outright by its candidate Morgan Tsvangirai.

President Robert Mugabe denounced the opposition on Friday in his first speech since the election, saying "thieves" were trying to steal the country.

Incommunicado

According to the South African news agency Sapa, the ship upped anchor between 1800 (1600 GMT) and 1900 (1700 GMT).

The ship's master, who earlier identified himself as Captain Sunaijun, could not be reached by telephone, the agency added, quoting anonymous sources.

The transponder aboard the An Yue Jiang was not responding on Friday evening, the BBC's Adam Mynott reports from Durban.

The head of an independent human rights group monitoring the vessel said it was heading for Mozambique, en route to landlocked Zimbabwe.

Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern Africa Litigation Center, said her group aimed to pursue the issue with Mozambique.

Her group had called for the blocking of a permit allowing the arms to be offloaded from the An Yue Jiang and transported.

South Africa's government had said it could not legally prevent the arms being transported through the country but the high court in Durban ruled that the cargo could not be moved overland, though it could be discharged in the port.

'Nothing to do with us'

The ship contains three million rounds of ammunition for AK-47s, 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades and several thousand mortar rounds, according to South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper.

Aerial footage of the Chinese ship

The weapons are packed in large red and blue containers piled high on the ship's decks.

There are Chinese crew on board and the ship is flying both the Chinese and South African flags, our correspondent said after going to look at the ship anchored 18km (11 miles) from the entrance to Durban harbour.

The Mail and Guardian reports that a subsidiary of a state-owned South African company, Armscor, was approached to handle the transport of the weapons after several private companies refused to handle the cargo due to its sensitivity.

South African Defence Secretary January Masilela said the country's National Conventional Arms Control Committee had given approval for the transit of the weapons.

"If the buyer is the Zimbabwean sovereign government and the seller is the Chinese sovereign government, South Africa has nothing to do with that," he said.

Mr Masilela added that there was no United Nations or African Union embargo on weapons sales to Zimbabwe.

Speaking in New York, South African President Thabo Mbeki echoed his defence secretary's comments.

Several Western countries have banned arms shipments to Zimbabwe, as has the European Union.

'Military regime'

With continuing tension in Zimbabwe over the failure of the authorities to issue results from the presidential election three weeks ago, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said it would be "grossly irresponsible" to allow the cargo through.

"The South African government cannot be seen as propping up a military regime," said Satawu General Secretary Randall Howard.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the weapons were not needed because Zimbabwe was not at war.

Zimbabwean Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga insisted no country had the right to stop the arms entering his country.

For its part, China says the shipment is part of normal trade relations with Zimbabwe, adding that "one of the most important principles is not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries".

 

 

Short Video,Right Click and save to your desktop, its 60 megs

Following elections in 2005, the government initiated "Operation Murambatsvina," a supposed effort to crack down on illegal markets and homes that had seen slums emerge in towns and cities. This action has been widely condemned by opposition and international figures, who charge that it has left a substantial section of urban poor homeless. The Zimbabwe government has described the operation as an attempt to provide decent housing to the population although they have yet to deliver any new housing for the forcefully removed people.^[25

^]

Robert Mugabe (picture on wall) looks over a Zimbabwean

Zimbabwe's current economic and food crisis, described by some observers as the country's worst humanitarian crisis since independence, has been attributed, in varying degrees, to a drought affecting the entire region, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the government's price controls and land reforms.^[26]

Life expectancy at birth for males in Zimbabwe has dramatically declined since 1990 from 60 to 37, the lowest in the world. Life expectancy for females is even lower at 34 years.^[27] Concurrently, the infant mortality rate has climbed from 53 to 81 deaths per 1,000 live births in the same period. Currently, 5.6 million Zimbabweans live with HIV.^[28]

Empty shelves, a now all too familiar site in Zimbabwe

Refugee crisis

The economic meltdown and repressive political measures in Zimbabwe has led to a flood of refugees into neighbouring countries. An estimated 3.4 million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the population, had fled abroad by mid 2007.^[93] Some 3 million of these have gone to South Africa.^[94]

Apart from the people who fled into the neighbouring countries, an estimated 570,000 people are displaced within the borders of the country, many of whom remain in transit camps and have limited access to assistance. Most of the displaced have been victims of the Operation Murambatsvina in the year 2005 and continuing evictions and violent farm seizures. Their plight is virtually impossible to assess, as there has been no national survey of people displaced since 2005.^[95]

Opposition gatherings are frequently the subject of brutal attacks by the police force, such as the crackdown on a March 11, 2007 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally. In the events, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and 49 other opposition activists were arrested and severely beaten by the police. After his release, Morgan Tsvangirai told the BBC that he suffered head injuries and blows to the arms, knees and back, and that he lost a significant amount of blood.^[43] The police action was strongly condemned by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the European Union and the United States.^[44] While noting that the activists had suffered injuries, but not mentioning the cause of them,^[ the Zimbabwean government-controlled daily newspaper The Herald claimed the police had intervened after demonstrators "ran amok looting shops, destroying property, mugging civilians, and assaulting police officers and innocent members of the public". The newspaper also argued that the opposition had been "wilfully violating the ban on political rallies".^[46]

There is also an abuse of human rights in the media. The Zimbabwean government suppresses freedom of the press and freedom of speech.^[41] It has also been repeatedly accused of using the public broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, as a propaganda tool.^[47] Newspapers critical of the government, such as the Daily News, closed after bombs exploded at their offices and the government refused to renew their license.^[48][49] BBC News and CNN have also been banned from filming or reporting from Zimbabwe. They continue to report on happenings within Zimbabwe from neighbouring countries like South Africa. ^[

^{Bag of money for two loaves of bread.}

What can you do?? Be aware, follow the news. The elections are being held the weekend of the29th and 30th. There are widespread reports of vote rigging. Don’t let this dictator have any more time in power; he has almost entirely destroyed this beautiful country

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