Zimbabwe claims Chicom arms delivered, China says no

Telegraph:

Reports said the weapons, including three million bullets, mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, had been off-loaded from the Chinese vessel, the An Yue Jiang, at the Angolan port of Lobito and flown to Harare.

The ship had been the focus of international condemnation when it sailed towards South Africa last month. It was refused docking rights and remained off the coast for several weeks before the Chinese foreign ministry recalled it.

However, Bright Matonga, Zimbabwe's deputy information minister, was quoted by the South African newspaper, The Weekender, as saying that the regime has the weapons.

Two Zimbabwean ministers and senior army officers visited Luanda three weeks ago to negotiate the docking and unloading of the ship.

George Chiramba, a spokesman for Mr Mugabe, said in the state-controlled newspaper, The Herald, that "the arms will be delivered to Zimbabwe, one way or the other".

The Chinese foreign ministry said yesterday that confirmation of the delivery was "groundless rumour".

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It is possible that Mugabe's thugs may be spreading the rumor in order to intimidate the opposition. I think the activities of the ship were closely monitored by the US and others, and if the arms were delivered, we would have probably heard about it from sources outside of Zimbabwe.