Regime Watch: Beijing

On April 18, The Guardian–a british newspaper–reported on a Chinese cargo ship docked in South Africa loaded with some 77 tons of small-arms, and destined for the Robert Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.

According to The Guardian’s South Africa correspondent:

A Chinese cargo ship believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of small arms, including more than 3m rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, has docked in the South African port of Durban for transportation of the weapons to Zimbabwe, the South African government confirmed yesterday. It claimed it was powerless to intervene as long as the ship’s papers were in order.

Copies of the documentation for the Chinese ship, the An Yue Jiang, show that the weapons were sent from Beijing to the ministry of defence in Harare [the capital city of Zimbabwe]. Headed “Dangerous goods description and container packing certificate”, the document was issued on April 1, three days after Zimbabwe’s election. It lists the consignment as including 3.5m rounds of ammunition for AK47 assault rifles and for small arms, 1,500 40mm rockets, 2,500 mortar shells of 60mm and 81mm calibre, as well as 93 cases of mortar tubes.

It might seem amazingly stupid timing on Beijing’s part to be supplying arms to one of Africa’s most atrocious authoritarian regimes only months before the opening of the Olympics in Beijing. But arming, and otherwise propping up African thugocracies is business as usual for Beijing. As The Guardian continues:

Despite international criticism, the Chinese government has been a longstanding backer of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian regime, supplying it with jet fighters, military vehicles and guns. China, or Chinese businesses, are reported to have sold radio-jamming devices to prevent independent stations from contradicting the state-controlled media, and have signed vital agriculture deals.

The Beijing/Mugabe arms story broke at about the same time as a new report by Human Rights Watch on torture camps being set up in Zimbabwe to punish opposition party memebers who voted against Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party in last month’s elections.

According to the April 19 Human Rights Watch report:

During the day, ZANU-PF and their allies (so-called “war veterans,” youth militias and some armed men in military uniform) gather at these camps to decide on their targets, generally those known or thought to support the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). According to witnesses, the targets are then rounded up and brought to the camps at night, where they are beaten for hours with thick wooden sticks and army batons. Human Rights Watch has interviewed more than 30 people in the last two days who have sustained serious injuries, including broken limbs, as a result of these beatings.

Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections on March 29, 2008 delivered a decisive defeat for the ruling ZANU-PF led by Robert Mugabe. Yet, nearly three weeks later, the ZANU-PF-appointed Election Commission has failed to announce the results of the presidential poll that took place at the same time.

ZANU-PF officials are calling the crackdown Operation Makavhoterapapi, or “Where did you put your cross?” There seem to be two aims to this organized violence: to punish people for having voted for the MDC and to intimidate them to vote for ZANU-PF if there is a presidential run-off. One victim told Human Rights Watch: “They told me that next time you will vote wisely, now you know what we can do.”

If there is a run-off election in Zimbabwe, maybe next instead of wooden sticks and batons, Mugabe’s thugs will be using Chinese-made AK-47s.