I didn't mean to defend Avaaz or e-petitions, just emphasize the importance of solidarity with Zimbabweans against Mugabe & co.
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>
> Message: 12
> Date: Sun, 04 May 2008 16:51:35 -0400
> From: Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Zimbabwe: UK's N Korea
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Message-ID: <481E21D7.1020107 at mail.ngo.za>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Chris Sturr wrote:
> > I am surprised that no one has responded to Peter Hart Ward's post about
> > Zimbabwe.
>
> As much as Peter Ward risks kookiness by defending Mugabe, saying "fix
> our own problems" - when so many of Zim's problems *are* British in
> origin, hence decent comrades should double their solidarity with
> oppressed Zimbabweans - he's right about Avaaz generally being
> "childish". There are far better ways to get involved in pressure work,
> in genuine solidarity not just e-petitions.
>
> An update from a great Zim comrade at AfricaAction, Briggs Bomba, is
> below; and below that a speculative article on Friday which, sadly is
> true. That's 3 million more bullets available for Mugabe now, damn it.
>
> And fully agreement, Chris, Bill's work is generally superb, and his
> Zimbabwe articles are brave and true:
>
> > I don't feel qualified to respond in full, but I think Bill
> > Fletcher, Jr.'s articles in Black Commentator (e.g. this one:
> >
> http://www.blackcommentator.com/206/206_friends_tortured_zimbabwe_fletcher_ed_bd.html
> )
> > are worth checking out.
>
>
>
> briggs bomba wrote:
> > Cdes,
> >
> > I was on a panel with Bright Matonga, the Deputy Minister for
> Information and Publicity, this afternoon on a program called FOUR
> CORNERS for the cable news channel Press TV and in the course of the
> debate he made a statement that 'in any case that shipment is already in
> Zimbabwe', refering to the Chinese arms shipment. As soon as the clip is
> up on their website (www.presstv.com) i will post it.
> >
> > Of course this came as both a shock and disappointment to me
> conisdering that i hold the example of the South African Dock workers
> who refused to offload this lethal cargo as a historic turning point in
> people to people solidarity with the Zim struggle for democratisation,
> something that as someone suggested on our panel, 'deserves an
> international labour award'.
> >
> > I thought i should share this, i think it is important for us to know
> how this happened, so that we SHAME SHAME SHAME those in the region who
> co-operated with the regime. My guess is Angola!
> >
> > Fight On!
> >
> > Briggs
>
> ***
>
> www.mg.co.za
>
> Did the weapons go through Angola?
> Mandy Rossouw, Nic Dawes and Jason Moyo
> 02 May 2008 06:00
>
> Off the radar: An Yue Jiang, the Chinese ship carrying weapons for
> Zimbabwe. ( Photo: Rogan Ward)
>
> For a massive ship that carries tons of ammunition and has its own
> cranes on board, the controversial Chinese ship carrying arms for
> Zimbabwe is about as easy to pin down as a cockroach in a dark, damp
> cellar.
>
> The An Yue Jiang is carrying three million rounds of ammunition for
> AK-47s, 1 500 rocket-propelled grenades and several thousand mortar
> rounds. The cargo was destined for Zimbabwe, where the opposition
> Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says violence is at its worst since
> the country became independent.
>
> Maritime and arms-control experts could only speculate on the
> whereabouts of the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) cargo ship
> this week, which was meant to be heading back to China. It has managed
> to stay under the radar after leaving South African waters, but was
> spotted near the Angolan coast on April 25.
>
> On Wednesday the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said
> the An Yue Jiang was still outside the port of Luanda but had neither
> docked nor shown signs of returning to China.
>
> "It appears that the ship slowed right down over the weekend, probably
> while it awaited orders. The fact that it then made full speed for
> Luanda suggests that it got them. We trust that they will be for it to
> take on fuel and make their way home and that no attempt will be made to
> land any of its cargo of arms.
>
> Given the lack of any definitive promise from Cosco or the Chinese
> government to this effect, we can promise that the world will be
> watching what happens next," ITF general secretary David Cockroft said.
>
> Lloyds Maritime Information Unit (Lloyds MIU), which monitors shipping
> worldwide, told the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday that according to its
> tracking records the vessel docked at Luanda airport, refuelled and then
> set sail again.
>
> This series of events is supported by the Angolan government, which
> insists the ship docked in Luanda but was allowed only to offload
> construction material destined for Angola.
>
> The exact location of the ship could not be given by Lloyds MIU as the
> captain repeatedly switches off the vessel's transponder, which can be
> detected by maritime authorities.
>
> There is some scepticism about a promise by Angolan President Jose
> Eduardo dos Santos that the arms would not be offloaded in Angola.
>
> Newspaper reports this week said that Malawian and Zimbabwean
> intelligence officials and politicians made their way to Angola to meet
> Dos Santos.
>
> The M&G has learned that Mugabe's right-hand man, Cabinet minister
> Emmerson Mnangagwa, was accompanied by the country's top spy, Happyton
> Bonyongwe, and other security figures on his quest to deliver a "special
> message" to Dos Santos this week.
>
> "I think people also underestimate the basis of some of our alliances in
> the region," a senior Zimbabwean diplomat who was involved in the
> Mnangagwa mission said. He pointed to a decade-old "military pact"
> between Zimbabwe with Angola and Namibia.
>
> Many top government officials this week said they believed Mnangagwa
> would lean on these old military alliances to persuade Angola to allow
> the release of arms held aboard the An Yue Jiang. Meanwhile, other
> sources said that a Chinese air cargo company, MK Air, might be involved
> in transporting the An Yue Jiang's arms to Zimbabwe. The MK Air flight
> lodged a suspicious flying plan from Luanda that might have allowed it
> time to divert to Zimbabwe, said sources in the arms-control industry.
>
> The flight last Saturday from Luanda to a European destination was
> "lost" for at least 17 hours on its leg between Luanda and Entebbe in
> Uganda. This gap would have given the aircraft time to make it to
> Zimbabwe and then on to Entebbe.
>
>
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