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- Mar 4, 2013
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Chief of Defence Forces, General Davis Mwamunyange
Dar es Salaam. The Chief of Defence Forces, General Davis Mwamunyange, has dismissed as untrue reports that North Korean military experts are working in Tanzania in violation of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.
Gen Mwamunyange said the Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces (TPDF) had not engaged engineers from North Korea to repair its Soviet-made MiG-21 fighter jets and other military aircraft as claimed in widely circulated reports.
Contrary to the reports, there had been no pressure exerted by either the US or South Korean diplomats on TPDF to end what are claimed to be close military relations between Tanzania and North Korea, he said.
There has been no communications whatsoever from the US or South Korean governments on any such issue. We have not been under any pressure, Gen Mwamunyange told The Citizen last week during the handing over of military vehicles from India. He was commenting on a report published on August 2 by the online magazine Africa Confidential that 18 North Korean military technicians and army officers were in Mwanza repairing fighter jets.
The report said a North Korean merchant ship that was intercepted in the Panama Canal on July 16 carrying two MiG-21s from the 1950s was headed to Tanzania. The ship reportedly originated from Cuba.
The publication alleged that the US and South Korean governments were pressuring President Jakaya Kikwetes government to sever any military relations with North Korea.
Earlier, TPDF said it had no reason to engage North Korean technicians.
We dont have any aircraft or other military equipment manufactured in North Korea. Why then should we hire their technicians? TPDF spokesperson Major Eric Komba told The Citizen in a telephone interview. Maj Komba said it did not make sense to hire North Koreans to repair Soviet-manufactured military equipment.
Africa Confidential suggests that Tanzania could be in breach of UN sanctions if indeed it was engaging with North Korea.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1718 was adopted unanimously by the United Nations Security Council on October 14, 2006, and imposes a series of economic and commercial sanctions on North Korea in the aftermath of that nations nuclear test of October 9, 2006.
Scrutiny on North Korea became more intense following more missile and nuclear tests by Pyongyang and its threats to attack South Korea and the US.
Contacted for comment, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe, while not denying or confirming the alleged presence of the North Korean engineers, said he doubted if Tanzania would have breached UN sanctions by hiring technicians from that country.
source;THE CITIZEN
