- PRETORIA - The impounding
of an aircraft, said to be carrying weapons and mercenaries, by Zimbabwean
authorities in Harare was still shrouded in mystery on Tuesday.
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- The South African high commissioner to Zimbabwe, Jerry
Ndou, is to meet Zimbabwean officials on Tuesday regarding the incident,
and allegations that among the 64 men on board are South Africans, foreign
affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said on Tuesday morning.
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- South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act prohibits
the involvement of South Africans in military activities outside South
Africa without authorisation from the National Conventional Arms Control
Committee.
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- News24's partner Beeld reported on Tuesday that intelligence
sources said the plane could have been on its way to West Africa, perhaps
headed for a threatening coup in Equatorial Guinea, a small former-Spanish
colony wedged between Cameroon and Gabon.
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- Its capital, Malabo, is on an island off Cameroon's coast.
Oil was recently discovered in its waters.
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- Technical
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- The newspaper also indicated that the elderly cargo plane
originated in South Africa and may have been forced to land in Harare because
of a technical problem.
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- The plane's origins continued to perplex.
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- SABC radio reported it was registered to a South African
company; Zimbabwe claimed it was US-registered. This was denied by the
US State Department, but a South African aviation expert said the aircraft's
registration number, N4610, was definitely American.
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- An initial check of US Federal Aviation Administration
records showed N4610 to be registered to Kansas-based Dodson Aviation Inc.,
but a Dodson official said it sold the plane about a week ago to an African
company called Logo Ltd.
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- The aircraft, a Boeing 727-L100, is being detained at
a Zimbabwean military air base after it was discovered to be carrying mercenaries
and military equipment, according to the Zimbabwean government and state
media.
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- State television bulletins, however, showed no sign of
arms in the aircraft.
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- Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said the
plane had been detained at Harare International Airport at 19:00 on Sunday
after its owners made a false declaration of its cargo and crew. He did
not name the owners.
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- However, state television news showed a large plain white
aircraft with a blue stripe along the side and bearing the registration
N4610.
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- Military police were shown going through piles of boots
and colourful training shoes, blue kitbags, hand-held radios, satellite
telephones, loud hailers, sleeping bags, bolt cutters, sledgehammers, a
small pepper spray and a bright orange dinghy, but there were no sign of
firearms, ammunition or explosives.
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- The bulletin described the equipment as of the type "normally
used by commandos on specialised missions".
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- It said air force, army and bomb disposal experts were
still examining the cargo "to determine whether there is possibly
arms of war".
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- Edited by Duane Heath
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- http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-259_1495503,00.html
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