China defends role in Sudan against Olympic critics

January 10, 2008 (BEIJING) — China on Thursday defended its engagement with Sudan, where its oil investments and close ties with the government have made it a target of growing criticism from rights groups ahead of this year’s Beijing Olympics.

Liu Guijin, China’s special envoy to Africa, rejected any connection between the Darfur conflict with the Olympics and said China’s investment in Sudan was creating wealth in a place whose wars were fundamentally about poverty and lack of development.

“Blaming the Chinese government for everything the Sudanese government has done on the Darfur issue is unreasonable,” Liu said in a question and answer session Web cast on china.com.cn, a government Web site.

Liu said it was illogical to come to conclusions about China’s role in Darfur based on its close relationship with the Sudanese government in Khartoum.

“The Chinese government has never supported the Sudanese government conducting any massacre of its people,” he said.

“Of course we also recognise that because of chaos and conflict, because of reasons related to both government and rebel forces, it has caused the deaths of some innocent people and has created a humanitarian disaster.”

More than four years of ethnic and political conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur have left 200,000 dead and driven another 2.5 million from their homes, international experts estimate. Khartoum says 9,000 people have died.

Rights groups accuse China, a major investor in Sudan’s oil industry, of fanning the violence with investments they say prop up the government and say the Olympics should be used as a chance to pressure Beijing on the issue.

Liu said China’s trade with Sudan was good for the country.

“China is helping Sudan’s development and creating wealth for Sudan’s people,” he said, adding that even after years as diplomat on the continent he was still surprised and moved by the depth of the poverty in Darfur.

China has also been under pressure to leverage its close ties with the Sudanese government to push it to do more to resolve the conflict.

But Liu said China’s engagement with Khartoum, in particular President Hu Jintao’s talks there last year, helped push the country to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force alongside African Union troops to help staunch the bloodshed in Darfur.

He also took aim at Western approaches to resolving the conflict, which he said were too heavy-handed.

“China has asked the international community, especially Western countries, not to resort too easily to sanctions, not to turn too easily to embargoes and not to turn too easily to use of force,” he said.

Instead, Sudan’s sovereignty should be respected and the issues solved through dialogue.

After trips to Washington and New York to state China’s case to the government and to groups such as the Save Darfur Coalition, Liu said some of the criticism was lifting, but that unfair attacks on Beijing’s role in Sudan remained.

“Unfortunately, there are still some non-governmental organisations, including some media, who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear and don’t give objective or complete reports,” he said.

(Reuters)