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Sudan Tribune

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Chinese envoy says it is unfair to link Darfur crisis to Olympics

July 27, 2007 (Beijing) — U.S. politicians and people steeped in “Cold War” thinking are unfairly linking the Darfur crisis with China, a state-run newspaper quoted China’s envoy to Sudan as saying.

China’s ability to bring an end to the crisis in the war-torn region of western Sudan has been unfairly exaggerated, partly because of the U.S. presidential election campaign, Liu Guijing was quoted as saying in Friday’s China Daily.

“Certain U.S. politicians like to play up Darfur to show that they are standing on higher moral ground,” Liu said. He did not single out any individuals.

He said people trying to connect Darfur with the 2008 Summer Olympics did not understand reality or were steeped in obsolete “Cold War” ideology.

China has been criticized for its support for the Sudanese government, even as it tries to portray itself as a responsible power while welcoming the world to the Summer Games, a huge source of national pride. More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million others displaced in Darfur since February 2003,

Those linking Beijing to the crisis “tend to distort China’s stance and refuse to recognize the constructive role China has played,” Liu was quoted as saying.

“It is not China’s Darfur, it is first Sudan’s Darfur and then Africa’s Darfur. We have cooperated, and will continue to cooperate on the Darfur issue, instead of confronting other countries over it,” he said in a front-page interview.

China’s presumed influence over the Darfur issue stems primarily from its heavy role in Sudan’s crucial oil industry, including buying two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports. China sells Sudan weapons and military aircraft and is building dams and other infrastructure in the country.

China has also blocked efforts to send U.N. peacekeeping forces to Darfur without Sudanese consent, using its status as a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

However, in June there was a diplomatic breakthrough in which Sudan’s government finally agreed to let a combined force of U.N. and African Union peacekeepers be deployed in Darfur. Liu has said previously that China was instrumental in that development.

He said no peacekeeping operation would work without the support of the Sudanese government.

“You have to learn how to deal with the Sudanese government,” he was quoted as saying.

(AP)

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