US special envoy to Sudan says he is disappointed with China

By Wasil Ali

April 23, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — A senior US official today criticized the Chinese government and accused it of being insensitive to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

“Speaking from my responsibility I continue to be disappointed that China doesn’t have greater concern about the people suffering in Darfur and are not proactively helpful to us” the US special envoy to Sudan, Richard Williamson told the Senate foreign relations committee.

Williamson was testifying before the US Congress for the first time since his appointment in December of last year. The hearing was held on the topic named “The Continuing Crisis in Darfur”.

The other speakers at the hearing included Jane Lute of the UN Department of Field Support and assistant administrator for Africa at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Katherine Almquist.

The soft spoken envoy told the US senators that China continues to protect the Sudanese government from international pressure and slowing down UN efforts in Darfur as a veto wielding member.

“Yesterday there was a discussion in the UN Security Council (UNSC) about benchmarks; put more pressure for rapid deployment [of peacekeepers to Darfur]. The Chinese position was twofold. Yes it would be good to have more rapid deployment but no let’s not put pressure on them. They said benchmarks are counterproductive” he said.

Williamson’s remarks are a clear departure from those of his predecessor Andrew Natsios who often argued that the Chinese government is doing ‘behind the scenes’ work to pressure the Sudanese government on making concessions.

Last year Natsios warned against public criticisms of China saying it was impeding their diplomacy.

“I think they may be the crucial actors. I think there’s been a lot of China-bashing in the west. And I’m not sure, to be very frank with you, right now it’s very helpful,” Natsios was cited as saying.

Energy-hungry China buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil output and sells weapons to the Khartoum regime. Critics say Beijing has not used its economic leverage to push Sudan’s government more strongly for peace, and have attempted to shame China into acting by linking the Darfur crisis to next year’s Summer Olympics in the Chinese capital.

“We remain hopeful their [Chinese] behavior will become more proactive and constructive” Williamson told the committee.

Chinese weapons sale to Sudan

The US lawmakers questioned President Bush’s envoy on the sale of weapons by Beijing to Khartoum and their usage in the Darfur conflict.

The UNSC resolution 1591 adopted on March 29, 2005 placed an embargo on the supply of arms to all parties to the conflict in Darfur.

Human rights groups frequently accused China of supplying arms to Sudan for use in Darfur, in breach of a UN arms embargo and produced photographs of Chinese weapons in Darfur.

Williamson acknowledged that China is one of the major weapon suppliers to the Sudanese government but said that technically this is not a violation of arms embargo in Darfur.

“Currently there is an embargo on weapons sales to Darfur and not to Sudan. Once they are in the country your imagination is as good as mine where they end up” Williamson said. He also said that the there is no intelligence information on a direct arms transfer to Darfur.

However Senator Robert Menendez told Williamson that he doesn’t “need to go to an intelligence briefing to find that out”.

Ninety percent of small arms sold to Sudan between 2004 and 2006 including assault rifles, the most common weapon used in Darfur, come from the Chinese,” the New Jersey senator said.

Normalization of ties with Sudan

The US special envoy was questioned on the reports of a new initiative by the Bush administration to gradually normalize ties with Sudan.

Last week the New York Times (NYT) obtained a series of documents exchanged between the Washington and Khartoum on a series of steps to normalize relations between the two countries. The documents were leaked by an unidentified US official described as being “critical of the administration’s position”.

The report said that the Bush administration could remove Sudan from an American list of state supporters of terrorism and normalize relations if the Sudanese government agreed, among other steps, to allow Thai and Nepalese peacekeepers as part of the peacekeeping force.

However Williamson said the report is “not accurate” and that if it was “he would not defend it and would not engage in it”. He further said that it was the Sudanese government which approached Washington on the requirements for normalizing ties.

“Concrete, verifiable, significant progress must be achieved on the ground before we can contemplate improved relations” Williamson said.

He had told Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir that “we think the government of Sudan lies. There is going to be nothing taken on faith. Nothing on promises,” Williamson said.

The US provided the Sudanese with a document outlining steps needed to normalize ties. Khartoum responded back with another paper a couple of weeks later.

“They got their bat on the ball. They didn’t hit it very far” Williamson described Khartoum’s response.

“We made it clear to them that the past agreements such as joint communiqué on humanitarian issues, the CPA, ceasefire were not part of these discussions. These were commitments that they have to live up to. If there change on the ground and these things are happening …then we would be looking at taking steps. There is nothing upfront” he added.

The newly appointed US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson met in Rome last week with a high level Sudanese delegation to discuss normalization of ties. The meeting adjourned late Friday and will be resumed “within a month” according to Sudan official news agency (SUNA).

Williamson offered to brief the Senate in a classified hearing on the details of the negotiations with the Sudanese government and the documents exchanged between the two sides.

Addis Ababa Communiqué a “mistake”

The former US presidential candidate in 2004, John Kerry speaking to Williamson said he thinks that the Sudanese government has a ‘veto’ over the deployment of the peacekeeping force.

“The deployment is dependent upon a government that is blocking movements, creating problems about access. The very facilitators of the genocide basically have a veto over the ability to move effectively with that. What kind of policy [US] is that?” Kerry asked.

Williamson said he doesn’t think Khartoum has a veto but acknowledged that they can “create impediments” and that they have done that.

But the democratic senator asked the US envoy on the refusal of the Sudanese government to allow non-African troops such as the engineering units from Norway and Sweden causing the two countries to withdraw their offers in face of Khartoum’s resistance. Sudan also has been reluctant to accept the Thai and Nepalese units offered.

Williamson said the Sudanese position was based on the Addis Ababa communiqué signed between the UN, African Union and the Sudanese government in 2006. The agreement stipulated that the force will be mostly drawn from African nations and before UNSC resolution 1769 creating the UNAMID force.

“I was not part of those talks. I don’t know what went into them… I wish that the Addis agreement that gave them the unusual leverage on what they could accept had not been made” Williamson said after a moment of silence.

Kerry responded by saying that the US appears “impotent or unwilling or both with respect to the imperatives here”.

The bad guys

The US envoy said in his written testimony submitted to the committee that there are “many bad actors with whom I have engaged, and I do not forget that for a minute. But their engagement may prove critical for progress to be achieved”.

The US senator Russ Feingold from Wisconsin pressed Williamson to identify the “worst” of the “bad actors” he was referring to.

“The bad actors are almost anyone I have dealt with….. Dr. Nafi [Sudan presidential assistant], Mr. Gosh [Sudan’s intelligence chief]” the US envoy responded.

The Sudanese delegation Williamson met with in Rome last week was headed by Nafi and included Gosh as well as foreign minister Deng Alor. He also met with Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) chief Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur and a high level delegation from the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Paris, France.

Chadian support to JEM

Williamson pointed fingers to the Chadian government accusing them of backing Darfur JEM in their military offensive.

“We have to have serious discussions with president Deby and the Chad government to stop their support of the JEM which in turn are initiating military offensive for which the government [Sudanese] responds in totally disproportionate way killing innocent civilians” he said.

The Sudanese and Chadian government have both traded accusations over supporting each other’s armed oppositions.

President Deby describes as “mercenaries” of Sudanese government, the rebel groups which try regularly to topple his regime.

Last February Jean-Marie Guehenno, the French head of UN peacekeeping operations warned that a reported proxy war between Sudan and Chad through rebel groups on each side of their border threatened to destabilize the region and could lead to a wider conflict.

At least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and diseases and more than two million have fled their homes in Darfur since the ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-dominated regime in February 2003.

(ST)