Home  info info China Makes Controversial Arms Sales to Sudan
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China Makes Controversial Arms Sales to Sudan |
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China’s presence in Sudan has always been a simmering point in the context of human rights and supplies of arms. China allegedly arrived at oil exploration fields of Africa when they found the oil reserves in north-eastern Daqing oilfield was fast depleting. Weapons deliveries from China to Sudan since 1995 have included ammunition, tanks, helicopters, and fighter aircrafts. Official data shows that China also became a major supplier of antipersonnel and antitank mines after 1980.
But the recent arms supply by China has invited a lot of flak from Human Rights’ Organizations as well as other international bodies. The five years of conflict between rebels, the army and pro-Khartoum militias have already erased 200,000 lives. Sudan is considered as the third largest conventional arms manufacturer in Africa next only to South Africa and Egypt. China is also blamed for their nod for controversial precondition during their presidency at the UN council, to take the approval of Sudan for any deployment of UNAMID a UN-African Union force.
China's special envoy on Darfur Liu Guijin defended the sales in a statement to the BBC that Beijing accounted for just 8% of Sudan's total arms imports. He claimed that the US, Russia and UK were the biggest arms exporters to developing countries including Sudan. He indicated that Chinese weapons were not the ones fueling the conflict in the region. He further argued that there were seven countries from which Sudan was getting its arms supplies and even if China stopped their supplies it was not going to solve the problem.
Liu is currently in the UK and would fly to Darfur to urge them to co-operate with the UNAMID to bring peace to the region. The UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, UNAMID began the deployment in January, but the force lacked planned strength of 26,000 for the mission. The critics say China with their excellent trade relations with Sudan should take pro-active steps to bring back peace and harmony to the war-torn country.
TOBOC TEAM- by Jose Roy
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