China raises Darfur while courting Sudan
April 3, 2007 (BEIJING) — China has offered Sudan increased military cooperation, but also urged the African state to compromise on the Darfur crisis that has unleashed waves of bloodshed and refugees.
The United States and other Western powers have sought to pressure Sudan into accepting U.N. peacekeepers to quell violence in Sudan’s western province of Darfur, where government-backed militia have been fighting rebel forces. African Union forces there have failed to stop massacres.
China, which buys much of Sudan’s oil and wields veto-power over U.N. resolutions, has rejected U.N. forces without Khartoum’s agreement.
But in meetings with Sudan’s visiting Joint Chief of Staff, Haj Ahmed El Gaili, Chinese People’s Liberation Army officials sought to balance offers of cooperation with calls for an end to the impasse over Darfur.
Chinese Minister of Defence Cao Gangchuan told him that Beijing wants to extend military contacts, Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday.
“Military relations between China and Sudan have been developing smoothly for a long time,” Cao said, according to Xinhua. China was “willing to further develop cooperation between the two militaries in every sphere”, he added.
But China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that China had also raised Darfur and urged Sudan to consider a peace proposal put forward by the now retired U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
“China expressed its hope that Sudan can show more flexibility, and that all the parties will continue promoting the political process in the Darfur region,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news briefing.
Qin said China also urged Khartoum to “strive to improve security and the humanitarian situation in Darfur”.
Haj Ahmed El Gaili arrived in Beijing on Sunday for an eight-day visit, Xinhua reported.
China is increasingly caught between its political and energy ties to Sudan and rising criticism from Western governments and rights campaigners that it is not doing enough the end mayhem in Darfur and is frustrating deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.
French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou has called for the 2008 Beijing Olympics to be boycotted if China does not alter its Sudan policies.
The US and UK are preparing a new Security Council resolution that would extend sanctions on Sudan due to its continued foot-dragging over the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to Darfur, a move officials were not expecting China to easily accept.
Beijing has made clear its unwillingness to interfere in the internal affairs of Sudan. Billions of dollars of Chinese investment, particularly in the oil sector, have provided crucial support to President Omar al-Bashir’s regime and Chinese companies are involved in building bridges, roads, government offices, a hydroelectric dam and an oil refinery.
Amnesty International said in a report last year that China had sold Sudan ammunition, tanks, helicopters, and fighter aircraft since the 1990s and helped to build a road used by the Sudanese army and allied militias to attack civilians. Beijing dismissed Amnesty’s criticism and said it abided by “rigid self-control” on arms exports.
More than 200,000 people are believed to have died in Darfur and some 2.5 million have been driven from their homes into squalid camps since ethnic tensions erupted into revolt in 2003.
U.N. reports have blamed Arab militias, which they say are backed by Khartoum, for atrocities including mass rape and murder.
In February, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Sudan, urging President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to resolve the four-year-old conflict but also signing several economic deals, including an interest-free loan to build a new presidential palace.
(Reuters/FT)