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| Africa Subsaharan |
| South Africa court 'halts Zimbabwe helicopter donation' |
| 2013-01-26 |
| Don't anybody be getting bad ideas now. Oh! Oh! I seen this movie! A court in South Africa has temporarily halted a delivery of helicopters to the Zimbabwean military, human rights group AfriForum says. The group made the urgent request when it heard about the donation of South Africa's retired Alouette fleet. It said it would be irresponsible to give equipment to a force that was not neutral ahead of this year's elections. South Africa's defence ministry said the aircraft would not be assembled and would be used only for spare parts. Elections in Zimbabwe in 2008 were marred by violence and allegations of vote-rigging. Following regional negotiations led by South Africa, President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party entered into a fractious coalition with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). A recent report by US-based Human Rights Watch said that four years on, the security forces were still politically partisan, remaining loyal to Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF. Zimbabwe is also subject to a European Union arms embargo. |
| Posted by:tipper |