The leadership is united on all our common objectives.”Heavily armed police started close surveillance of the MDC’s offices in Harare on Wednesday as tensions heightened before today’s verdict. The MDC has insisted that the treason charges against its leader are part of a relentless government campaign of harassment.Mr Tsvangirai himself said he wanted the case to come to an end. The presiding judge, Paddington Garwe, is a relative of Mr Mugabe and is among the President’s inner circle of allies who were allocated farms seized from whites.Kembo Mohadi, the Home Affairs Minister, said: “Those with an inclination towards disorder are strongly warned against such behaviour and law-abiding citizens are assured of peace and security.” The announcement unnerved many Zimbabweans, who interpreted it as a bad omen for the accused.Jealous Garainesu, an MDC supporter, said: “I am apprehensive and nervous. Why would they fear unrest unless they know the verdict? They probably know the judgment already. They know that unrest can only occur if there is a guilty verdict and only happy celebrations if there is an acquittal.”Newly appointed judges on the Zimbabwean bench are known to share their judgments on controversial cases with the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, before these are announced in court.Michael Majuru, the former Administrative Court Judge President, fled the country last year after alleging harassment by Mr Chinamasa, who wanted to know how the judge had ruled in the banned Daily News case before he had announced his verdict in court.Mr Mohadi said he had intelligence that there were groups intent on causing trouble in the vicinity of the high court and in other parts of the country, regardless of the verdict. All this comes from oil fields in central and south-central regions which may hold only 15 per cent of Sudan’s total reserves.A failure in Sudan could severely damage China’s shaky efforts to become a global player in the oil business. When Saddam Hussein was overthrown, China lost a key partner.
Recently, two pipelines to import oil from Kazakhstan and Russia have been dogged by unexpected delays and problems.Securing long-term supplies of oil, natural gas, iron ore, copper and other vital minerals has become the top priority for China, and it is investing everywhere. One new project is a 600-mile, $2bn pipeline from Burma’s deepwater port of Sittwe, which will follow a projected railway line to China’s south-western province of Yunnan. Another is the development of Gwadar Port in Pakistan, which China hopes to use to ship oil and gas from the Gulf A pipeline to Xinjiang over the Karakoram Pass will follow.. China’s ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, has already threatened to veto any such resolution, but diplomats say Beijing may have to give in to mounting international pressure.Beijing is already under fire for its support of Burma, North Korea and Iran, countries also accused of breaches of international law.
China has helped to boost Sudan’s crude oil production from 150,000 barrels per day in 2000 to an expected 500,000 bpd in 2005. After the US imposed sanctions in November 1997, the rest of the world – apart from companies from Pakistan, India and Malaysia – have kept their distance.Sudan’s attraction to China, other than its pariah status, is that it holds Africa’s greatest unexploited oil resources, even greater than those of the Gulf of Guinea. China was also singled out in the recently released Charles Duelfer report on Iraq’s WMD, along with Russia and France, for breaching the UN sanctions against Iraq and subverting the oil-for-food programme But China is almost alone in supporting Sudan. Since 1999 China has poured up to $3bn (£1.6bn) into developing several oil fields and building a 930-mile pipeline, refinery and port.The UN Security Council is committed to reviewing the situation on a monthly basis.
