China denies gun sales to Sudan grew
March 14, 2008 (JOHANNESBURG) — A U.S.-based human rights group said China dramatically boosted small-arms sales to Sudan as violence escalated in Darfur. Beijing denied the group’s report on Friday.
The report released Thursday by Human Rights First said China is the biggest supplier of small arms to Sudan. It provided 90 percent of all the African nation’s small arms acquisitions between 2004 and 2006, totaling more than $50 million.
China ramped up its small-arms supply to Sudan almost fivefold in 2004 as others cut back to comply with a U.N. arms embargo, according to data Sudan provided to the United Nations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement the report was “groundless” and “with ulterior motives.”
He also denied that China had broken the U.N. arms embargo and said it never exported arms to a country or region under embargo. The arms sold to Sudan were limited in number and accounted for a small proportion of the country’s arms imports, Qin said.
Sudanese government officials could not be reached for comment.
Human Rights First based its report on data from the U.N. Commodity Trade Statistics Database Web site, where Sudan reported its small-arms imports to the United Nations from 2002-2006.
Small arms such as assault rifles are the most common weapon used in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million people displaced in five years of fighting between African rebels and government troops allied with Arab militia known as janjaweed.
Betsy Apple, director of the rights organization’s Crimes Against Humanity program, said the report was based on Sudan’s reporting because China does not disclose all its arms sales.
She said Sudan was unlikely to overestimate its imports from China and it is possible the figures reported were low-balled because it was reporting to the U.N.
“For China to say these allegations are baseless is China essentially saying that Sudan is lying to the U.N.,” Apple said.
There is no specific information on the number of weapons sold because both the Sudanese and Chinese governments are not required to report those figures, she said.
China also supplies bomber jets to Sudan.
“People who say Chinese weapons are fueling genocide in Darfur, and that Chinese should be held responsible, and even linking the issue to the Olympics, are just not supported by the facts,” Liu Guijin, China’s special envoy to Sudan’s war-torn western region, said last week on his return from Sudan.
China says it is one of seven countries supplying weapons to Sudan.
As international pressure mounted last year, China took credit for persuading al-Bashir to agree to a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur. China also announced it would send an additional $10 million in humanitarian aid to Darfur, and 275 military engineers who have been digging wells and making other preparations for the hybrid force.
(AP)