China is the biggest supplier of small arms to Sudan – report
March 13, 2008 (NEW YORK) — China provided Sudan with some ninety percent of its small arms during 2004-2006 making China by far the biggest supplier of small arms to Khartoum, said a New York City-based group working in domestic and international rights from a legal perspective.
The Human Rights First in a 58 pages report released today, accused China of selling over $55 million worth of small arms to Sudan as the violence escalated in Darfur. The advocacy groups said China stepped in to fill the void created by the decrease of arms sales to Sudan from the other countries.
“The close relationship between China and Sudan is rooted in China’s dependence on Sudanese oil to fuel its own exponential economic growth;” explains the report.
Beijing is the biggest investor in Sudan’s oil fields, buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports, invests otherwise in its economy and protects Sudan in the U.N. Security Council. In the last decade, China has given Sudan more than $1 billion in low- or no-interest loans, the human rights report says.
Human Rights First based its report on figures supplied by Sudan to the United Nations, and said the real figure probably was higher. But China denies such charges and says it is one of seven countries supplying weapons to Sudan.
During a visit to London last February, Chinese envoy for Darfur Liu Giujin, deflected the oft-raised criticism that China’s arms sales to the troubled nation were partially responsible for aggravating the violence. Liu said that in 2006, only 8% of weapons imported by Sudan came from China.
However, that figure is at odds with data from the U.N. which show transfers of military weapons and small arms from China to Sudan stood at $23 million in 2005, making China the largest reported supplier of such weapons to Sudan.
“China’s claim that it’s doing all it can to help achieve peace in Darfur is fallacious so long as it is the chief supplier of small arms to the government of Sudan. If China is serious about helping bring peace to Darfur, it must first cut off arms supplies to Sudan,” said Betsy Apple, director of the Crimes Against Humanity program at Human Rights First.
The report urges China to immediately halt its arms sales to Sudan in the lead up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Also it requests Chinese support for the expansion of the U.N. arms embargo on Darfur to the whole of Sudan and prohibit the sale and supply of arms and related materiel to non-state armed groups located in or operating from Chad.
The advocacy group asks China to refrain from using its veto or threat of veto in the Security Council to impede or dilute efforts to stop mass atrocities in Sudan and elsewhere.
The group said that the upcoming Olympics offer a unique and urgent opportunity to exert pressure on China to reverse its deadly course in Sudan. However It does not call for the boycott of the Olympic games.
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg recently quit as an artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics because of China’s connection to Sudan.
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The Human Rights First report is available at: http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/080311-cah-investing-in-tragedy-report.pdf