Arms ship heads for Congo

The Times 8/5/2008
The cargo of Chinese arms destined for Zimbabwe is now heading for Congo Brazzaville, according the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union, where the union believes a further attempt will be made to unload the weapons ... The Durban-based inspectorate of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which has been monitoring the cargo ship Au Yue Jiang, is itself flying to Brazzaville to make sure that the weapons are not off-loaded there. A Satawu statement issued today said that the union could confirm that the ship docked in the port of Lobito in Angola and off-loaded building materials only ... Satawu said it condemned the Chinese government and the ship owners China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) for creating a false impression around the world that they had recalled the vessel. "This so-called recall was clearly only intended to deceive and remove the massive groundswell of political pressure ... "Both the Chinese government and Cosco have regrettably demonstrated that profiteering remains the overriding consideration over human solidarity and saving lives ... Satawu again called on all African governments and dock workers to refuse the vessel docking access and to refuse to handle the weapons with a view to ensuring that the vessel leaves African shores immediately ...

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition MDC have contested half the results of the March 29 parliamentary election, state media said on Wednesday, extending a stalemate that has triggered widespread violence. Official results showed ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980, while the Movement for Democratic Change and a breakaway faction together secured enough seats to control the assembly ... The challenge will have no effect on the result of a parallel presidential ballot, however, which showed MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent against President Robert Mugabe's 43.2 percent, triggering a run-off since neither candidate won an absolute majority. The MDC has not said whether it will participate in the run-off. It believes Tsvangirai won the election outright ... The state-run Herald newspaper said ZANU-PF and the MDC had lodged 53 and 52 petitions respectively with the electoral court, citing irregularities they believed had affected the results. The challenges come after a recount of original results in 23 constituencies confirmed ZANU-PF's defeat ... independent Zimbabwean election monitoring group ZESN expressed doubt about the credibility of the results of the presidential election and accused ZANU-PF of attacking observers ... U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he was talking to African states about how the world body could help make a run-off credible and expressed concern about the violence ...

COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE AFRICAN EMERGENCY SUMMIT ON ZIMBABWE

DAR ES SALAAM, 21 APRIL 2008

We, the undersigned representatives of civil society from 21 countries in Africa, after meeting in Dar es Salaam on the 21 April 2008, and

after debating, interrogating and considering the events subsequent to the 29 March 2008 elections held in Zimbabwe,

and after noting the following:

• the groundbreaking convening of such a diverse range of civil society organisations from all regions of the African continent, all mobilising for a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis;