Arms intended for Zimbabwe rejected

Dock workers refuse to unload Chinese shipment

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe marked the country's 28th anniversary of independence yesterday in Harare, in his first major speech since the disputed election in March. (ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images)

JOHANNESBURG - A Chinese ship loaded with armaments for Zimbabwe steamed into the port of Durban this week and set off a political firefight, putting newfound pressure on South Africa - and now China - to reduce support for Zimbabwe's government as it cracks down on its rivals after a disputed election.

Dock workers at the port, backed by South Africa's powerful unions, refused to unload the ammunition and weapons yesterday, vowing protests and threatening violence if the government tried to do it without them.

Meanwhile, the Anglican archbishop of the province appealed to South Africa's High Court to bar transporting the arms across South Africa, saying that they were likely to be used to repress Zimbabweans. They won, and by late yesterday the ship had pulled up its anchor and sailed away.

The arms shipment was ordered from China before the elections, but its arrival amid Zimbabwe's political crisis illuminated deep fissures within South Africa over how to respond, and brought new scrutiny on China at a time when its human rights record is already under fire for suppressing protesters in Tibet and supplying arms to the government of Sudan.

Three weeks after Zimbabwe's presidential election, officials there have yet to announce the outcome. Independent monitors believe the governing party trailed its main rival, the Movement for Democratic Change, but the government has responded by systematically beating, arresting, and harassing its opponents, human rights groups say.

The Chinese ship, packed with ammunition, rockets, and mortar bombs, quickly became a symbol of the clashing approaches to the Zimbabwean dilemma: Should South Africa confront Zimbabwe's autocratic president, Robert Mugabe, in power for 28 years, or continue to pursue the quiet diplomacy that has earned it international criticism?

In his first major speech since the unresolved election, Mugabe yesterday denounced whites and former colonial ruler Britain, suggesting that the country's political and economic troubles stem from abroad, the Associated Press reported.

"There are black people who are putting prices up, but they are being used by the whites," Mugabe said in a speech marking the country's Independence Day. He promised to tighten laws that set prices and to crack down on - and possibly take over - businesses that break the rules.

Mugabe, 84, has ruled since independence in 1980 but failed to win reelection in the March 29 presidential vote, according to independent monitors. He said yesterday that his political opposition wants "this country to go back to white people, to the British, the country we died for. It will never happen."

"Be vigilant in the face of the vicious machinations of Britain and its other allies," he said. "Yesterday they ruled by brute force. Today they have perfected their tactics to be more subtle."

The prospects of Morgan Tsvangirai, the presidential candidate of the MDC party, dimmed further yesterday when the opposition's court case to bar a recount of crucial parliamentary seats failed.

That set up the possibility that the only victory the opposition had been able to secure in the elections - winning control of Parliament's lower house - would be overturned in a recount today.

Randall Howard, general secretary of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, said the dock workers had no intentions of allowing the Chinese cargo to be unloaded. "If they bring in replacement labor to do the work, our members will not stand and look at them and smile," he said.

The South African government yesterday was actively helping Zimbabwe clear the shipment through customs. South Africa's Defense Secretary, January Masilela, said in an interview that the National Conventional Arms Control Committee's scrutiny committee, which he chairs, had issued a permit to move the goods from Durban to Harare.

Themba Maseko, spokesman for the South African government, explained in regretful tones the government's rationale: No international body has yet imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe. And so South Africa has little choice, as the trading hub, but to allow a deal between two other countries, even if it is unhappy with a particular transaction.