Bishop stops arms

An Anglican bishop in South Africa has successfully sued in court to prevent the transport of a large shipment of small arms across South Africa that were en-route to Zimbabwe. Bishop Rubin Philips acted in High Court of Durban and invoked a section of South African law to stop the shipments.

According to news reports:

"[The] legal action was being sought in terms of the National Conventional Arms Control Act (NCACC), which 'requires that any transfer of arms be authorised by a permit issued on terms of the NCACC'.

[...]The controversial cargo packed into 3080 cases allegedly includes three million rounds of 7.62mm bullets (used with the AK47 assault rifle), 69 rocket propelled grenades, as well as mortar bombs and tubes.

The cargo is, according to the documentation, valued at R9,88-million."

Read the full news story here.

UPDATE: The BBC is now reporting that the ship in question has departed from the port of Durban.

UPDATE: April 19 10:30 a.m. ET
Reuters reports that the ship is headed for an Angolan port.

Posted by Nicholas Knisely on April 18, 2008 5:00 PM | |
Comments (2)

Thank you so much for posting this, I've been following the Zimbabwe story for some time now.

The excellent blog This is Zimbabwe noted drily "We call them guns; Mugabe calls them 'campaign materials.' "

Posted by ginny gibbs [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 18, 2008 11:33 PM

There is some speculation the shipment ultimately got through: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/8896

Posted by John B. Chilton [TypeKey Profile Page] | May 22, 2008 8:43 AM

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