State dismisses media claims over arms

Cote d’Ivoire to assist that country’s embattled former leader, Mr Laurent Gbagbo.
In an interview with a Nigerian paper in Abuja recently, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Mabed Ngulani, denied the allegations saying it was not Harare’s policy to inflame hot spots.
In a candid response to the allegations Mr Ngulani said: “After you spoke to me yesterday, I phoned my Foreign Affairs head office in Harare to say journalists are asking me questions here about what you saw in the paper, what is the veracity of the article; and I was assured that to the best of their knowledge, Zimbabwe has not shipped any arms at all to Ivory Coast.
“It will not serve any purpose to ship arms to a country that is already in a conflict situation.”
He said while the country had its Zimbabwe Defence Industries, it was not policy to supply arms to countries in conflict.
The ambassador challenged anyone with evidence of any shipment of the ammunition to present it.
Ambassador Ngulani said Harare was urging Ivorians to find amicable solutions to their political problems.
He dismissed suggestions that disturbances in Egypt and Tunisia could be replicated in Zimbabwe because the political circumstances obtaining in the countries were different.
“No one wants to shed blood. And as for the situation in Zimbabwe, we are in the middle of crafting-up a new constitution.
“We consulted people last year . . . and we are writing the constitution as I speak now.
“We are going to have the constitutional referendum before the year is over and then we would have elections under a new constitution,” he said.
On Zimbabwe-Nigeria relations, Ambassador Ngulani said ties were cordial and dated back to the Second Chimurenga.