Sudan dismisses report on use of Chinese & Russian arms in Darfur

February 8, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has described allegations contained in a new report on Khartoum’s use of arms purchased from Russia and China in the western region of Darfur as the vanguard of an international conspiracy to impose more sanctions on the country.

Sudan’s western most region of Darfur has been under an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) since July 2004 against the background of a conflict between the government and rebel groups accusing it of marginalising the region. The UNSC also formed a taskforce to monitor the enforcement of the ban.

A report released on Thursday by Amnesty International (AI), a London based human rights group, has accused Russia and China along with Belarus of continuing to flout the embargo by supplying arms to the Khartoum based government.

The report, titled “Sudan: No end to the conflict in Darfur”, documents the presence in Darfur of “significant quantities of ammunition, helicopter gunships, attack air crafts, air-to-ground rockets and armoured vehicles,” sold by Russia and China to the Sudanese government.

“China and Russia are selling arms to the government of Sudan in the full knowledge that many of them are likely to end up being used to commit human rights violations in Darfur,” said Brian Wood, an AI expert on military and policing.

AI’s report says that Russian and Chinese arms are “fuelling serious human rights violations in Darfur” citing the displacement in 2011 of estimated 70,000 people from the Zaghawa community in a wave of “ethnically-targeted” attacks by government forces and allied paramilitary forces in eastern part of the region.

The report also says that Chinese manufactured ammunition have also been observed during 2011 in South Kordofan, the scene of a separate conflict between the Sudanese government and rebels aligned with the newly established state of the Republic of South Sudan.

The UNSC is due next week to consider the existing arms embargo on Darfur. Taking note of this fact, AI’s report called for suspension of all arms sales to Sudan and extension of the embargo to the whole country.

“The Darfur conflict is sustained by the constant flow of weapons from abroad. To help prevent further serious violations of human rights, all international arms transfers to Sudan should be immediately suspended and the UN arms embargo extended to the whole country”, said Brian Wood.

But Khartoum sees no truth in the report except a grand conspiracy to bring the UNSC to toughen sanctions on Sudan. According to the official spokesman of Sudan’s foreign ministry, Al-Obaid Adam Marawih, the report prepares the ground for an international plan to impose a no fly zone over the country and allow foreign aid groups to access rebel controlled areas in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

The UNSC’s team of experts tasked with monitoring the embargo reported in March 2011 that the measure “remains without discernible impact” saying that arms continued to leak to various belligerents in the region.

The team also stated that most cases of ammunition documented in the region “bore markings of manufacturers from China” advising the council to widen the scope of the embargo to include all sales of arms to the Sudanese government and its counterpart in Chad which neighbours Darfur.

The UN says more than 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their home as a result of the conflict whose intensity declined significantly in recent years.

(ST)