Japan says Sudan not right for investment

March 5, 2008 (TOKYO) — Japan said Wednesday that Sudan was too dangerous for investment by Asia’s largest economy after a Khartoum official sought investment and played down the bloodshed in Darfur.

Nafi Ali Nafi, a top aide to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, is visiting Tokyo as part of preparations for a conference on African development Japan plans to host in May.

He met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura and expressed “hope for investment from Japan to Sudan, which has abundant resources such as oil, minerals and farm products,” the Japanese foreign ministry said.

Nafi told Machimura that Sudan “would like to see the Japanese government take the initiative to lead investment by Japan’s private sector,” the ministry said in a statement.

But Machimura, Japan’s chief government spokesman and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s top aide, replied: “Japan’s private corporations still have anxieties over Sudan’s security conditions,” the statement said.

On Darfur, Nafi argued that the security and human rights situation was getting better “unlike reports made by Western media,” the statement said.

International organizations estimate that 200,000 people have died in Darfur and more than a third of the six-million population displaced since 2003 as state-backed Arab militias battle ethnic minorities for scarce resources.

The Khartoum government says the death toll has been greatly exaggerated in the conflict, which the United States has denounced as genocide.

Sudan’s main overseas supporter and arms supplier is China, which has come under growing pressure to use its clout to end the bloodshed.

Japan has often uneasy relations with China and has increasingly tussled with Beijing for influence overseas.

(AFP)