Angola rebuffs Zimbabwe and 'ship of shame'

NY Times:

In a slap to Zimbabwe, its longtime ally Angola announced Saturday that a Chinese ship bearing arms for Zimbabwe would not be allowed unload the weapons while it docked in Luanda, the Angolan capital.

The “ship of shame,” as the Chinese vessel An Yue Jiang has been nicknamed in African newspapers, has become a powerful organizing tool for trade unions, religious leaders and civic groups trying to stop state-sponsored brutality against Zimbabwe’s opposition. Any delivery of its weapons could well make that crackdown even more deadly.

Angola’s decision — it said it had allowed the ship to unload cargo meant for Angola, just not the weapons — brought the latest and the most surprising evidence of success in the international pressure campaign against the Zimbabwean government.

Levy Mwanawasa, Zambia’s president and the head of a bloc of 14 southern African nations, Tuesday called on leaders in the region not to allow the cargo to be delivered, but he had publicly criticized Zimbabwe’s leadership before.

In contrast, Angola has long been seen as one of President Robert Mugabe’s staunchest allies, and its decision to block the arms is a fresh sign that the region’s traditional solidarity with Mr. Mugabe, the hero of Zimbabwe’s liberation from white rule in 1980, is weakening.

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It is good to see African leaders finally wake up to the mess in Zimbabwe. More is going to have to be done to rescue the people from this despot, but at least he want have teh Chicom weapons to facilitate his genocide.