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Arms shipment destined for Zimbabwe 'to return to China'
24 April 2008
The ITF has cautiously welcomed indications from the Chinese Foreign Ministry that a shipment of arms intended for Zimbabwe is likely to be returned to China; last Friday dockers in South Africa refused to unload a vessel carrying the cargo.
The port workers, represented by the ITF-affiliated South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union, refused to unload the China-flagged An Yue Jiang, which was due to dock in the port of Durban. Bound for Zimbabwe, the vessel, owned by the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) was carrying a cargo of arms, which, it was feared, would be used by Mugabe against opposition forces following the post-election tensions. The union’s members in the trucking sector also said they would not move the cargo, which was meant to have been transported to Harare by road.
The ITF has noted that the Chinese government has deferred the final decision to Cosco; the company has not yet made a definite announcement that the arms mission is being aborted. The ITF did however welcome assurances it received from Cosco today that the company “has been actively resolving this matter.”
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “We hope that this will bring this affair to a close, and are ready, if appropriate, to stand down the international trade union operation to stop this deadly shipment reaching Zimbabwe.”
He continued: “There’s a lesson here: that when governments refuse to do what they should, it’s in the power of ordinary people – in the ITF, our member unions, the International Trade Union Confederation the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and the churches – to do what has to be done. We will draw on that experience if we learn that any further attempts are being made to hand Mugabe’s thugs the weapons they would doubtless use against the people of Zimbabwe.”
On 22 April, the ITF mobilised workers across southern Africa to oppose any transfer of the An Yue Jiang’s shipment and stated that a return of the ship to China was the only realistic option. It also sought to ensure that the seafarers caught up in the affair were not put in danger.
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