China defends Darfur stance after French politician’s remarks

March 22, 2007 (BEIJING) — China on Thursday defended its position on the Darfur crisis after a French presidential candidate called for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics unless more is done to pressure the Sudanese government.

Francois Bayrou, a center-right candidate for France’s presidency, proposed this week that his country’s athletes stay away from the Beijing Games in an effort to make China lean on Sudan’s government to help end the bloodshed in the region.

China, which buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil and sells it weapons and military aircraft, has opposed sanctions against Sudan but urged the government earlier this month to follow through on a plan to deploy U.N. peacekeepers to beef up African Union forces in the troubled region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said he wasn’t aware of Bayrou’s remarks but said, “the people who put forward those remarks are not very clear on China’s position on the Darfur issue.”

“We can see that the Darfur issue is very complicated and sensitive,” Liu said at a regular briefing. “It’s hard to expect to resolve the issue within one or two days. … We hope that Sudan can hold equal consultations with all parties concerned and push forward a final, political solution of this issue.”

A permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China has come under increasing international pressure to use its influence over Khartoum to resolve the conflict, which 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. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have fled their homes in the past four years.

Beijing has been criticized for taking a hands-off approach to political violence and human rights abuses in Africa, where it has been increasing its investment to tap the continent’s vast natural resources.

(AP)