China, once again against the People of Sudan
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
March 14, 2009 — China’s Conflict of Interest in the Sudanese oil continues to worsen the suffering of the people of Sudan in Darfur. China one of the Five Veto waving Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), refused to endorse the draft statement calling for the government of Sudan (GoS) to backtrack on its expulsion of 13 humanitarian aid organisations from Darfur following The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issuance of arrest warrant against Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir for 7 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity on Wednesday 4th March 2009. China’s veto and its interest in Sudanese oil are no secret to anyone. China is the largest foreign investor in Sudan; it has vested economic interest in Sudan and works hard to ensure that the Sudanese government is not a subject to punitive measures. It opposed to sanctions against the murderous regime in Khartoum from Day One. When the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1564, threatening Sudan with oil sanctions unless it curbed the violence in Darfur, China threatened to veto any effort to impose an embargo on Sudan, which supplies 7% of China’s oil imports. China is a major trading partner with Sudan, purchasing approximately two-thirds of its oil exports annually. In its position on the Security Council, China has threatened to veto any resolution that includes sanctions or other harsh penalties in order to protect its trade interests with Sudan.
Investor’s Business daily editorial quoted by Sudan Tribune as early as May 2, 2005under the title ‘Geopolitics’ that China’s lust and needs for oil have been estimated to grow 10% a year for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, China has invested $15 billion in developing Sudanese oil fields through its China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). CNPC owns 40% — the largest single share — of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., a consortium that dominates Sudan’s oil fields in partnership with the national energy company and firms from Malaysia and India. CNPC is also part of a consortium of oil firms including Malaysia’s Petronas and Talisman of Canada
operating in the Higleig and Unity oilfields in southern Sudan. It also owns the concessions for Block 6, an oil field partly located in southern Darfur. CNPC employed 10,000 workers to build a 900-mile long pipeline from an oil field in Kordofan province to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Moreover, Sudan inaugurated a. Chinese-built $700 million oil refinery 70 kilometers north of Khartoum (in the Elgaly area), with a capacity of 100000 barrels of oil per day
Chinese oil workers work under the protection of Sudan Armed Force (SAF) troops armed with Chinese-made weapons, the Oil for Blood idiom. It has been reported that large banners in Khartoum carry pictures of smiling Chinese workers and the slogan: China National Oil Corporation (CNPC): “You are a Close Friend and a Faithful Partner!!
Unscrupulously, China is Sudan’s largest supplier of arms; Khartoum uses Chinese-made tanks, aircrafts, helicopters and other weapons to clear civilians and rebels from oil-fields rich in petroleum. The very same Chinese weapons continue to be used by Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) against the civilians in Darfur.
Analysts indicated that, through the Chinese economic investment and military aid, the National Congress Party (NCP) military regime obtains roughly US$2 billion a year in oil revenues. Many political observers say without that, National Islamic Front (NIF) government lead by the ICC indicted al-Bashir couldn’t have stayed in power, let alone waging war against its own people.
The Chinese government exploits veto to protect the murderous Sudanese NCP regime to meet its own growing energy needs and its interest in Sudanese oil have been the main factors for the atrocities and the heinous crimes in Darfur to continue 6-years-on and the main reason for the ineffectiveness of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to stop the carnage.
The deplorable act of the government of Sudan (GoS) against the 13 Aid Organisations has been considered an irrevocable damage to the humanitarian operations in Darfur and represents a “grievous dereliction of Sudan’s duty to protect its own People” and a shameful failure to fulfill its obligations. The government of Sudan by expelling the International Rescue Committee doing, Care, Oxfam Great Britain, Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières, which represent 40% of the6500 international and local aid workers in Darfur, has left more than 1.5 million people including “children, women and elderly” without food, drinking water and lacking health care.
It is evident that China once again stands in opposition to the means of support for the beleaguered civilian Sudanese people in Darfur. In the circumstances, the international community represented by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is expected to shoulder the responsibility to rescue the IDPs and refugees from the dangers ahead of them by adopting the Oil-For-Food programme to feed the displaced persons in Darfur and the refugees in neighboring countries. Furthermore, the UNSC needs to draft a Resolution to impose a No Fly Zone “NFZ’ over Darfur to protect the civilian population against aerial bombardment by the NCP regime. The no-fly Zone resolution will target the Sudanese military Air Force that continues to defy the United Nations ban on offensive military actions in Darfur according to Resolution 1769. This would deprive the Government of Sudan (GoS) of air power over Darfur a significant step toward providing security to the region’s inhabitants.
The United States vice-presidential candidates from both major political parties expressed support for imposing a no-fly zone over Darfur in a live televised debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri October 2, 2008 during the US Presidential election campaign. The Democratic candidate, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, and the Republican candidate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, also agreed on the need to stop what the candidates called either “genocide” or “atrocities” in Darfur. Such a no-fly zone would mean that U.S. Air Force or Navy planes would patrol the airspace over Darfur to prohibit military aircraft flights. Moreover, as early as 2005, Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) called for a NATO enforced no-fly zone over Darfur with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and ex-senator Bob Dole adding their voices in 2006. The United Kingdom has also supported this idea. Since France has air force assets based in Chad, it would be logistically feasible to institute the no-fly zone immediately, analysts say.
The three proposals of No-Fly-Zone over Darfur, Oil-for-Food and the opening of aid routes for NGOs into the Darfur region through neighbouring countries, in the wake of the GoS expulsion of the humanitarian Organisations, will represent life line for the people of Sudan in Darfur.
Will the International Community (UNSC) give serious thought to put into prompt and an effective action the three above pertinent suggestions? That is the sixty-four-dollar question (The $64)!
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]
Akol Liai Mager
China, once again against the People of Sudan
But a real $64 Millions question that needs to be answered by Darfuris Movements including JEM is that; will International Conference on Darfur and Al Bashir Arrest Warrant attended only by China, Qatar, Egypt the host nation, HAMAS, Izboullah, NIF, Somalia, Zimbabwe’s Mugabi, Iran and Venzuela’s Ugo Chevez serve or solve Darfur issue without Fur friends in Europe and USA?
Include your answer to this question in your next article because I really want to know the answer from JEM’s perspective.
Peace,
Akol
jeff
China, once again against the People of Sudan
China will never be a superpower.We westerners will not give them the chance to takeover from us. we want to die us super power andn o one else above us.We all know China have a big military and resources but we will continue to sabotage China throught TIBET.
France is better than China. France will not kiss your ass like the way British and Germans are kissing your ass.
Sudanthinker
China, once again against the People of Sudan
As expected, another well written but essentially empty article by Mr.Sulieman,
It’s fascinating to see how a man who claims to be African is so eager to invite his historic European colonial masters to reinvade his country with their armies.
Am sure Mr.Sulieman is hoping for a bit of a blend of the Iraqi Kurds and Kosovo Albanian scenarios where it all started with a No fly zone and ended in full invasion and a later a cessation of some part of a country.
In the end he and his Zagawa clan will establish the historic “Fur” kingdom, although I remember that Dr.Khalil already had a different name in mind for “his” new country.
Let’s talk of the immeasurable suffering of the people in the IDP camps Mr.Sulieman, let’s suppose they were driven away from the straw huts and mud houses in their villages and they live in camps now. Can you anyone trading in the Darfur misery problem tell how have the lives of these people changed?
I’ve been to Darfur in the eighties and nineties and I have been there recently, and here is my remark on the changes, the suffering people of Darfur moved from their straw and mud huts with no running water, no electricity, no schools and no hospitals (which is the case of most of Sudan and not only Darfur) to a place not so far away where they get water proof tents, free sanitized water, free food, education and health care. Do you expect these people to want to return to…….what?
You drive around in brand new (stolen) land cruisers with an army of stone heads all day, what have you achieved since you and your posse started your “struggle”?
If you were as popular as you claim how come you don’t control a single city in Darfur but are based in Chad (which of course is being run by your distant cousin Mr. Debbi)?
Various UN agencies and NGOs in Darfur accused your group of vehicle theft, kidnapping, forced child recruitment and banditry and you claim to lead a struggle for Darfur??
But let us overlook all these facts, what is your political agenda, if you have one of course, that is aside from your demands that the president of Sudan has to be from Darfur and the governor of Khartoum too and aside from promising your child soldiers villas in Khartoum?
Mr.Sulieman, you along with all your JEM (Just Earning Money) movement should be put behind bars for starting this ugly war and for continuing to trade on the misery (if that the case) of the people of Darfur.