China confirms Zimbabwe arms deal is off

4/24/2008 - 10:14:33 AM

The controversial shipload of weapons intended for Zimbabwe will return to China, officials confirmed today.

A successful international campaign to persuade neighbouring countries to refuse to land the cargo meant there was no way to deliver it, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Landlocked Zimbabwe had originally planned to transfer the weapons by road from South Africa.

The planned arrival of the weapons came amid a political stand-off in Zimbabwe over an election more than three weeks ago, with the government refusing to concede that it lost as the opposition claims.

“The (shipping) company took this decision,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. “The shipment will be returning.”

Jiang defended the shipment as a normal arms transaction and said the contract had been signed last year.

The timing of the arms shipment had further cast a spotlight on China’s ties with Africa, where its aggressive business practices and support for authoritarian regimes have drawn increasing scrutiny.

There is no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe, and China is one of the southern African nation’s main trade partners and allies.

It was widely feared the arms could be used by president Robert Mugabe’s regime to expand a clampdown on political opponents.

Although China’s global weapons exports are considered tiny Beijing is a principal exporter of cheap, simple small arms that are blamed for fuelling violence in Sudan and other parts of Africa.