WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-19 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
By Carvin Goldstone and Peter Fabricius
The Chinese ship carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe made a dash out of Durban harbour on Friday before it could be served with a High Court order preventing its cargo from being offloaded and transported through South Africa.
Anglican bishop Rubin Phillips with Patrick Kearney, a former activist and executive of the Diakonia Council of Churches, on Friday brought an application to the Durban High Court to prevent the weapons from reaching Zimbabwe.
But, according to the Southern African Litigation Centre (Salc), which set up the legal team for the action, the ship, the An Yue Jiang, had left the harbour illegally, possibly bound for Maputo.
Papers were lodged with Judge Kate Pillay shortly before 5pm. About an hour later attorney Ranjit Purshotam said Pillay had ruled in favour of the application, effectively barring the transfer of the arms to Zimbabwe through South Africa.
Speaking after the decision was handed down, Kearney said: “I think we believe it would be highly irresponsible for additional arms to be made available in that kind of situation where we have an election that seems to have collapsed. We still don’t know who the president of Zimbabwe is.”
But Salc executive director Nicole Fritz said on Friday night the ship had left the harbour before the sheriff could serve the crew with the interdict. It was difficult to chase the ship and they would have to consider further legal action. Officials in Maputo had been alerted.
Maputo port director Ken Shirley was aware of the ship’s plan to dock in Durban, but not that it was headed for Maputo.
Terry Hutson, of Durban’s Ports and Ships, said the ship was no longer traceable on a tracking device.
The An Yue Jiang had been at anchor off Durban since Monday.
Its cargo, packed into 3 080 cases, apparently includes three-million rounds of 7.62mm bullets (used with the AK-47), 69 rocket-propelled grenades, mortar bombs and tubes.
According to documentation, the cargo is worth R9,88-million.
Fritz said the Zimbabwean situation was clearly becoming a threat to international security.
“That justifies the UN Security Council taking up the issue and sending in a peacekeeping mission, or at least a fact-finding mission.”
On Monday, South African Defence Secretary January Masilela issued the An Yue Jiang with a conveyance permit.
Salc said the authorities had granted permission for the arms to be transported across South Africa on the grounds that there was no South African or international arms embargo against Zimbabwe.
But, it said, other factors should have been taken into account.
Under the National Conventional Arms Control Act, arms should not be sold or transferred to a country where they could contribute to “repression or suppression of human rights and fundamental freedom” or to governments “that violate or suppress human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
Fritz said: “Given the … increasing accounts of widespread attacks on Zimbabwe’s civilian population by government forces, it is hard to imagine clearer circumstances in which South African authorities were obliged to refuse the grant of any conveyance permit.”
Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday met Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Johannesburg and called on South Africa to stop the transfer of the arms to Zimbabwe. “We need food, not guns,” he said.”
Stoltenberg said he would attend the Southern African Development Community summit in Mauritius this weekend, and counsel the region’s leaders to put pressure on Zimbabwe to release the results of the March 29 presidential election.