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Zimbabwe may have received Chinese arms via Congo: UN
United Nations (AFP) Dec 19, 2008 UN experts have "credible information" that Zimbabwe may have received Chinese arms last year via Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a recently published report. The UN Security Council report cites four Boeing aircraft flights that took place between Kinshasa, Harare and Lubumbashi and "transported a total of 53 tons of ammunition destined to the Zimbabwean army" between August 20 and 22 this year. "While this is not a violation of the arms embargo, it is an indication that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could become a transit point for weapons destined for other countries." In March, the Security Council extended an arms embargo until December 31 targeting the many armed militias operating in eastern DRC, but not the government's armed forces, the FARDC. According to the measure, Resolution 1807, the FARDC can receive military equipment as long as the exporting country informs the council's sanctions committee ahead of time. But the group of experts on the DRC said they "obtained information regarding military supplies flown to FARDC from Khartoum without notification to the sanctions committee." The group also "received credible information that the weapons transported originated in China" and has written to the Chinese government. "As the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not produce weapons or ammunition, this stock would have been imported to the DRC without notification and then possibly exported in violation of the original end-user agreement with the original exporter," said the report, published on December 12. Beijing has been investing heavily in the DRC in recent years. It lent the central African country an estimated nine billion dollars in May to restore its infrastructure and revive the mining industry, following a 35-million-dollar investment into the Congolese postal service last January. Fighting since August 28 between Congolese rebels and the Kinshasa government has displaced more than 250,000 people in DR Congo's eastern Nord-Kivu province. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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