China recalls Zimbabwe arms amid election crisis

A shipment of Chinese arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South African workers refused to unload the vessel and other neighbouring countries barred it from their ports, China said on Thursday.

The recall of the An Yue Jiang, carrying 77 tonnes of assault rifle ammunition, mortars and rifle grenades, came after unprecedented regional opposition in addition to Western pressure over Zimbabwe's election crisis.

No results have been announced for the March 29 presidential vote, while the outcome of a parliamentary poll which the opposition won is also in doubt because of partial recounts.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he won the presidential election outright and has accused President Robert Mugabe of delaying results to rig victory and keep his 28-year hold on power.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference in Beijing that the ship is to be recalled after it was unable to offload its cargo.

"To my knowledge, the Chinese company has decided to recall the ship and the relevant goods bound for Zimbabwe," Jiang said.

She defended the shipment in the face of criticism from New York-based Human Rights Watch, which said that any state that sent arms and ammunition to Zimbabwe could be complicit in the country's rights abuses. Neighbouring Zambia had also said the weapons could worsen Zimbabwe's crisis.

The European Union already has an arms embargo against Zimbabwe, part of sanctions in place since 2002. The United States has also imposed sanctions and former colonial power Britain wants a wider arms embargo.

But South African ruling African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, who has become the most outspoken African leader on Zimbabwe, said it was not yet to time to impose an arms embargo.

"I think it is going too far and I think it complicates a situation that needs to be handled with great care," Zuma told reporters in London.

Zuma, who has distanced himself from the "quiet diplomacy" of South African President Thabo Mbeki, has called on African leaders to take action to unlock the stalemate in Zimbabwe, whose economic collapse has driven millions of Zimbabweans abroad and put a strain on the region.

"STARING INTO THE ABYSS"

Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he supported all efforts to stop arms flowing into Zimbabwe. He also called on African leaders to convince Mugabe to step down.

"I want to call on African leaders to show that they really care by speaking quietly to Mr. Mugabe and say: 'Step down, you've been there for 20 years, man'," Tutu told reporters in the South African university town of Stellenbosch.

In a separate statement, Tutu said he joined other South African church leaders in a call for a U.N. arms embargo.

"Zimbabwe is staring into the abyss. Violence is growing and the people are suffering greatly as a result. It is now vital that we all do what we can to calm the situation".

Senior officials from Zuma's ANC and the MDC discussed Zimbabwe's political stalemate on Thursday and MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti briefed ANC officials on escalating violence, a spokesman for the Zimbabwean opposition party said.

The MDC, human rights groups and Western powers accuse Mugabe's ZANU-PF of a campaign of post-election violence. Tsvangirai says 10-15 MDC supporters have already been killed. Officials from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said ZANU-PF and the MDC had each retained one constituency in the recount of some parliamentary seats which started last Saturday, the state-run Herald newspaper reported in its online version.

It quoted ZEC deputy chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana as saying the recount would end by the weekend.

ZANU-PF lost 16 of those 23 constituencies in the original count, and needs to win nine more seats to overturn the opposition's parliament victory, the first in Mugabe's rule.

The government has indicated it expects a presidential runoff - necessary if no candidate wins an absolute majority.

The United States has led international calls for Africa to do more to end the Zimbabwe crisis. Washington's chief Africa diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, is in South Africa as part of a previously-arranged regional tour.