Oil for Blood: Chinese are unwelcome in Darfur
By Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman
December 4, 2007 — “One World, One Dream” is China’s slogan for its 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. But there is one nightmare that China shouldn’t be allowed to sweep under the rug. That nightmare is Darfur, where more than 400,000 people have been killed and more than two-and-a-half million driven from flaming villages by the Chinese-backed government of Sudan. China is pouring billions of dollars into Sudan. Beijing purchases an overwhelming part of Sudan’s oil exports and state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, an official partner of the upcoming Olympic Games, owns the largest shares in each of Sudan’s two major oil consortia. China has been indirectly funding the Sudanese government’s war effort in Darfur by massively investing in Sudan’s oil industry. Sudan’s government receives large royalties for the declared 500,000 barrels that are pumped each day, and observers believe as much as 70 percent of this cash goes to the military. The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) attacked the Chinese-run Defra oil field in Kordofan region in October 2007, days before peace talks were scheduled to begin with the government in Sirte, Libya, warning the Chinese to Leave Sudan. Other reports indicate that the government of Sudan (GOS) uses as much as 80% of proceeds from those sales to fund its brutal Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and its allied barbaric proxy militias. It also purchases their machinery of mass destruction such as bombers, assault helicopters, armoured vehicles and all sorts of arms, most of which are Chinese manufactured. Airstrips are constructed and operated by the Chinese have been used to launch bombing campaigns on villages. China has used its Veto Power in the U.N. Security Council to repeatedly obstruct efforts by the International Community to introduce peacekeepers to curtail the slaughter.
Recently, the two main Darfur Rebel groups, JEM and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) have demanded China to withdraw its troops, which include (135) engineers from Darfur with immediate effect. They said that China is not one of the states, which have worked to alleviate the suffering of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the refugees in Darfur. Furthermore, the rebels accused China of impartiality toward the crisis in Darfur, and worst, Beijing has been accused of working hard to disrupt and impede the international resolutions in the UN Security Council. The Movements added in their opposition to the presence of the Chinese troops that Beijing government has been funding the Government of Sudan (GOS) in its war against the people of Darfur. They also pointed out that China represents the major source of arms and military hardware that the National Congress Party (NCP) government uses to fuel its genocidal war against the people of Sudan in Darfur. Furthermore, they indicated that the early arrival, before the deadline, of the Chinese military personnel is part of its complicity with the evil agenda of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum and the protection of their bilateral interests rather than coming for the sake of protecting the defenceless civilians in Darfur. The spokesperson for JEM told «Middle East News Paper» that their movement would not target the Chinese troops who have been deployed in Darfur as long as they are under the flag of the United Nations in accordance with the UN Resolution 1769. Nevertheless, JEM said that the Chinese forces are unwelcome in Darfur and are asked to leave the Region. The Movement drew attention to the demonstrations in the Camps for the refugees and the internally displaced persons against the presence of the Chinese troops as a strong evidence of mistrust in their objectives of coming to Darfur. The demonstrators delivered letters to the African Union and to the United Nations expressing their position. They told the regional and the international bodies that they couldn’t trust “Khartoum providers of weapons”. Sudan Tribune reported that the IDPs of Darfur has been the first to express their rejection of the Chinese troops last Saturday, a day before the arrival of the 135 Chinese engineers to Nyala. JEM added that China is not only collaborated with the Khartoum regime in its killing spree, but it has done essentially nothing in Darfur other than standing like a spectator as the horrors of Darfur took place before its eyes. “The people of Darfur, do not trust China”, JEM said. Although China is the only country that can influence or compel General Omer al-Bashir’s NCP government of Sudan to stop the continuing mass murders and crimes against humanity, it chose not only to stand by but to support a government whose senior members may end up in front of the international criminal court (ICC) for war crimes. The Chinese have so far been unabashed of their collaboration with the Khartoum regime in the ongoing holocaust in Darfur.
China, who is hosting the “Genocide Olympics” in August 2008, seems to continue supporting Khartoum’s larger genocidal strategy in the region of Darfur and exportation. Beijing is not morally moved by the five-years-on tragedy of the most vulnerable people of Sudan in Darfur. China’s complicity in the ultimate international crime of genocide is evidently seen in its position at the UN Security Council when it abstained in the critical Vote on Resolution 1706 and insisted that the consent of Khartoum must be sought prior to the deployment of the UN force in Darfur. In doing so, China officially colluded with Khartoum’s claim of national sovereignty despite the responsibility of the International Community to protect the people of Darfur against massacre, war crimes and genocide., China, Sudan’s ally and, Sudan’s ally and veto-holding permanent member of the security council, Since 1997 when the US imposed oil sanctions on Sudan, countries like China became the main beneficiaries of Sudan’s emerging oil industry. American sanctions have kept many companies from Europe and the United States out of Sudan, but firms from China, Malaysia, India, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are racing in.
Moreover, barter trade between Sudan and China that includes arms for oil and anticipated oil revenue has been documented in various reports, including a detailed compendium from Human Rights Watch. Reports from the ground indicate that as much as 75 percent of weaponry captured from Khartoum’s forces is of Chinese manufacture. Not coincidentally, China is now a net importer of oil, with consumption growing at about 10 percent a year. Sudan continues to be China’s premiere offshore oil source. Therefore, corporate indifference to human suffering and destruction keeps on in Darfur through the unholy alliance between the Communist China and the NIF in Khartoum.
The displaced persons and the refugees chanting slogans such as “Oh China take your weapons and return to your country; we do not want your presence in Darfur!; China’s oil rights in Sudan mean mass murder in Darfur to go on. Is it ” Oil for Blood or the “Genocide Olympics?” !
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]