Chinese delegation visits Darfur displaced camps
April 8, 2007 (BEIJING) — A Chinese delegation in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region met officials and visited camps for the internally displaced, state media reported Sunday.
China has come under increasing international pressure to use its influence with Khartoum to resolve the ethnic conflict that has left at least 200,000 dead and forced more than 2.5 million from their homes since 2003.
The delegation’s leader Zhai Juan visited Abu Shouk, a camp in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, where some 50,000 internally displaced are living, and met Osman Yusouf Kibir, the region’s governor, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Abu Shouk officials said the lives of the refugees at the camp were “stable and natural,” the agency reported from Khartoum.
The Chinese delegation, which arrived Friday for a four-day trip, also visited a camp of 14,000 people in Nyala, South Darfur, and inspected the camp’s health center and primary school, the report said.
There, they met South Darfur Gov. Al-Haj Atalmannan Idris, who said the situation in his state was “stable and improving” although there was “sporadic fighting,” Xinhua reported.
The conflict erupted in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of neglect.
The Sudanese government is accused of unleashing militias known as the janjaweed, which are blamed for the bulk of the conflict’s atrocities.
The United Nations and Sudan agreed in November on a plan backed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the incremental deployment of a joint African Union-U.N. force of 20,000 peacekeepers, but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has since backed off the deal, saying he only would allow a larger AU force with technical and logistical support from the United Nations.
As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China has come under increasing pressure to play a bigger role in influencing the Khartoum government. China buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil and sells it weapons and military aircraft.
China said last week during a visit by Sudan’s Joint Chief of Staff Haj Ahmed El Gaili it will boost its military and other cooperation with the African country. Beijing also urged Khartoum to consider the proposed deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.
(AP)