China won’t tolerate threats to Darfur peacekeepers

November 28, 2007 (BEIJING) — China on Wednesday rejected threats made by a Sudanese rebel group against its peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

China “could not tolerate criticism from any party for its participation in peacekeeping missions in the Darfur region of Sudan, and opposes any public threat made against the security of its peacekeepers there,” the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Darfur rebel group the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement has said it considers Chinese troops targets because Beijing supplies military and economic support to Sudan’s government.

Over the weekend, China began deploying a 315-member engineering, well-digging and medical contingent to Darfur to prepare for the arrival of the proposed 26,000-strong hybrid African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force likely early next year.

The joint force is to take over from a beleaguered 7,000-member African Union mission, although Sudan has yet to approve a list of contributing countries, and participating nations have so far failed to contribute helicopters and other vital equipment.

The Justice and Equality Movement, which was boycotting peace talks, claims the Chinese force was only sent to Sudan to protect Beijing’s investments in the country’s oil industry.

In its latest attempt to broaden the battle beyond the western Darfur region, the movement attacked the Chinese-run Defra oil field in neighboring Kordofan region last month, inflicting losses to the Sudanese army and abducting two foreign workers.

Darfur rebels, along with many international rights activists, accuse China of indirectly funding Khartoum’s war effort in Darfur by massively investing in Sudanese oil.

China buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports and observers say Sudan’s military receives up to 70% of oil royalties.

More than 200,000 people have died since 2003, when ethnic African rebels in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government blaming decades of discrimination and neglect.

Sudan’s government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed – a charge it denies.

The government signed a peace agreement with one rebel group in May 2006, but other rebel groups refused – and many of those groups have since splintered, complicating prospects for a political settlement.

(AP)