Chinese Arms Shipment Fails to Reach Zimbabwe

The kleptocracy of Robert Mugabe that has run Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s richest places, into the ground recently tried to buy some weapons from the People’s Republic of China. According to media reports, The merchant vessel An Yue Jiang is carrying 1500 rocket-propelled grenades, 3,000 mortar rounds and mortar tubes, and three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition for Mr. Mugabe. Because Zimbabwe is landlocked, the vessel put into Durban, South Africa, where dockworkers refused to unload it. Mozambique and Angola have refused to let the ship dock. Reports are that it is headed back to the PRC.

The Chinese Communists are of the official opinion that the weapons were “perfectly normal trade in military goods between China and Zimbabwe” and that the deal was signed last year. They maintain the shipment has nothing to do with the fact that the Mugabe government likely lost the March 29 election and has decided to stay in power anyway – “unrelated to recent developments” was how they put it. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu denied reports that there are Chinese troops on the streets of Harare and other Zimbabwean cities (and this seems a stretch). She admitted that a few Chinese teachers are at Zimbabwean military schools.

Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change, acting as spokesman for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (who probably won the presidential election that Mr. Mugabe is trying to steal), said, “it would be pleasing to the people of Zimbabwe to note that there has been solidarity on the continent to stop the arming of the regime at the expense of the people.” He added, “We should be importing food for the people. We are not at war. If anything we have to have a war against hunger, poverty, a lack of democracy, dictatorship.”

It is far too easy to be overly optimistic in the case of Zimbabwe because one continually asks how much worse can it get? Somehow, the Mugabe government finds a way of making it worse. Yet, this might actually be the incident that sparks some kind of movement in the election impasse. Mr. Mugabe has far fewer options now that he doesn’t have 3 million AK-47 rounds to hand out.

As one MDC leader said, “Those weapons were not going to be used on mosquitoes but clearly meant to butcher innocent civilians.” Now that the dictator can’t do that, or at least can’t do it as effectively, Mr. Tsvangirai has offered an olive branch, “Robert Mugabe is a liberation hero on our continent and he must be convinced to make a graceful exit ... We believe the time has come for him to have an honorable exit.” The next move is Mr. Mugabe’s.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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