Zim generals met over arms ship

Harare - Generals in the Zimbabwean army were to have an emergency meeting on Sunday afternoon to consider alternative ways to bring its shipment of Chinese weapons into the country as soon as possible.

Beeld was told by a reliable source that the meeting took place after the governments of Mozambique and Tanzania refused to let the Chinese ship the An Yue Jiang deliver the cargo to one of their ports.

The ship fled the Durban harbour on Friday night shortly after the Durban High Court granted a court order to prevent the 70 tons of weapons from being transported through South African territory.

The court also ordered that the cargo be off-loaded in Durban for inspection.

Ship location unknown

The exact location of the ship was unknown and South African authorities did not want to comment over the weekend on further developments surrounding the weapons debacle.

After being refused by Mozambique the ship was presumably on it way to Angola because Luanda had been its next planned port of call.

According to Beeld's source, Zimbabwe's generals thought that this option would result in it taking too long for them to get their hands on the weapons.

The cargo contained, among other things, three million rounds of ammunition, 1 500 rockets and 3 500 mortar bombs and launchers.

International political pressure would also put the Angolan government in the spotlight.

Nicole Fritz of the Southern African Litigation Centre who was involved in getting an interim high court order in Durban on Friday, said on Sunday that negotiations were already taking place with the Angolan office of a human rights organisation, the Open Society Initiative, to consider further legal steps if the ship docked there.

Fritz said it was hoped that the US, which had extensive oil interests in Angola, would help put diplomatic pressure on the Angolan government.

Shortly after the court order was granted on Friday night, the ship's captain raised the anchor and fled to international waters.

Insiders thought that because of the controversial nature of the cargo and a fuel shortage, the ship would be forced to dock in one of Angola's harbours south of Luanda. Namibe and Lobito would possibly be used.

Navy sources said on Sunday that the ship's route was being watched but that it would probably not stray from international waters out of fear that South Africa would intercept it.

"It is not known how much fuel the ship had on board but without rebunkering in Durban the ship will have to proceed very economically," Beeld was told.

This meant a speed of about 30km/h, at which rate it would reach Luanda by Tuesday evening at the earliest.

The navy, the police, Interpol and international intelligence organisations were watching the ship via satellite.

If the ship delivered its cargo to Angola, getting it to Zimbabwe would still be problematic because of the lack of train connections between the two countries.