Europe, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights

RIGHTS: Norwegian Hand in Arms Ship

Tarjei Kidd Olsen

OSLO, Apr 22 2008 (IPS) - An internationally condemned Chinese cargo ship attempting to transport arms to Zimbabwe is partially insured by a Norwegian company. This may be illegal, according to Norwegian law.

A company spokesman has condemned the transport, adding that they it not know the ship was carrying weapons.

The Chinese-controlled An Yue Jiang is reportedly carrying three million rounds of ammunition, 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades and 2,500 mortar rounds destined for President Robert Mugabe&#39s Zimbabwe, where the political opposition alleges increasing violence against the party and its supporters following last month&#39s disputed elections.

An Yue Jiang was anchored off the port of Durban for four days until Friday Mar. 8, when a South African court refused to allow the ship to transport the weapons across the country to Zimbabwe and ruled that the cargo should be confiscated. The ship left before law officers acted on the order, and was rumoured to be heading for Angola or Namibia, which are being pressurised by the United States not to allow the ship to dock.

Zambia&#39s President Levy Mwanawasa has said he hopes no African country accepts the ship, in order to avoid further destabilising the situation in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe&#39s justice minister Patrick Chinamasa has told reporters Zimbabwe has a right to buy weapons if it wishes to do so.

Norwatch, a corporate ethics news service published by Norwegian NGO Fremtiden i våre hender, has revealed that Norwegian marine insurance company Assuranceforeningen Skuld sold An Yue Jiang&#39s shipping company, the Chinese state-owned COSCO, a so-called third party insurance for the ship in 2003. The insurance covers damages caused by the ship to third parties.

"We do not appreciate that our members transport this type of cargo, and would like to distance ourselves from it completely," Skuld&#39s executive vice-president Eric Jacobs told IPS.

Jacobs points out that the insurance is for the ship and not for the cargo itself, and says the company was not aware it had insured the boat until it was notified by TransArms, a U.S. NGO monitoring arms transfers, on Monday. "We don&#39t know where the five or six thousand ships we insure are at any one time, or what they are transporting, as that would be an impossible task and is at any rate not part of our remit," Jacobs said.

He says the company is looking into possible courses of action. "We are looking into the legality of the transport. Our insurance policy adheres to international law, and to the agreement between us and them which adheres to Norwegian law. If the cargo is illegal, then our insurance is certainly not valid," Jacobs said.

While the cargo is legal according to Chinese law, Jacobs points out that the South African court ruled against it. "This may be relevant for our insurance policy, but we have not seen the court judgement yet," he commented, adding that the company has asked COSCO for the ship&#39s transportation documentation in order to investigate whether the cargo adheres to the guidelines for the insurance.

Jacobs says that Skuld does follow ethical guidelines, but that they also have to adhere to the legal aspects of their contract with COSCO. "Even though morally and emotionally we might want to do more and do it faster, we cannot cancel this insurance before we have a clear picture of the legal situation, and I think the shipping company should also be allowed to put its side of the story," he said.

It is possible for Skuld to cancel An Yue Jiang&#39s insurance even if the contract has not been broken, but this requires that COSCO is notified well in advance, while circumstances will likely decide the fate of the ship imminently.

Jacobs does not want to say whether the company will cancel the contract even if its conditions have not been broken, an action that could result in costly litigation. "The most important thing now is to see if all the relevant laws and rules have been followed and to allow everybody to be heard, and then we will consider the options and make a decision."

An expert at Norway&#39s Oslo Peace and Research Institute (PRIO) believes that Skuld&#39s insurance of An Yue Jiang may be illegal according to Norwegian law. According to a clause in Norwegian arms export rules it is illegal for companies to assist in arms deals between foreign countries without special permission from the Norwegian foreign department.

According to Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT) research assistant Hilde Wallacher at PRIO, the rule may apply in this case as the transaction is occurring between China and Zimbabwe, and not between Norway and another country.

"The question is if a Norwegian company insuring a ship like this is covered by the clause, and I believe it may well be. On the other hand there is quite a distance between the actions of the insurance company and what is happening with the boat right now, and the company has only insured the boat and not the cargo itself. There is no legal precedent for an issue like this, and it is very difficult to know where a court would draw the line," Wallacher told IPS.

She still believes Skuld can cancel the contract if the company wants to. "Zimbabwe has a regime that to a certain extent is known for committing serious violations of human rights on a relatively systematic basis, and there is a growing series of soft-law documents and norms against the international community selling weapons where there is a high risk they might be used in such situations." Norway&#39s foreign department also follows this praxis.

The An Yue Jiang incident may lead Skuld to modify its future contracts with companies, according to Jacobs. "I think that could possibly happen. That is, we usually consider our insurance policies on an annual basis in an ongoing attempt to make sure they are optimal given everything that is happening in the world."

On Tuesday a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said that COSCO is considering returning An Yue Jiang to China, although according to Lloyds Marine Intelligence Unit in the United Kingdom the ship&#39s Automatic Identifying System (AIS) indicates that it is sailing in a north-westerly direction towards Angola.