DA hopes Clinton will use her influence to stop arms deal with Zimbabwe

The Democratic Alliance (DA) hopes that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will use her influence at tomorrow's meeting with President Jacob Zuma to stop the sale of millions of rounds of ammunition to Zimbabwe.

At a press conference on the weekend the DA exposed the fact that there was a pending application before the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) to export more than a million rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition and more than a million rounds of 9mm ammunition to Zimbabwe. NCACC chairperson Jeff Radebe confirmed yesterday at a press conference that the committee is in fact considering the sale of millions of rounds of ammunition to Zimbabwe.

We should not be arming Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF war machine because it will not be long before state of the art ammunition produced in our country will be used to fire on innocent people in Zimbabwe.

The DA therefore hopes that the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will:

• raise the dodgy arms deal issue at tomorrow's meeting with President Jacob Zuma; and
• use her influence to stop the export of millions of rounds of ammunition to Zimbabwe.

We should not be exporting any conventional arms to Zimbabwe.

Statement issued by David Maynier, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of defence and military veterans, August 7 2009

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