MiG under fire for arming Sudan

By Lyuba Pronina

MOSCOW, July 22, 2004 (Moscow Times) — Amnesty International on Wednesday blasted Russia for shipping warplanes to Sudan at a time when Khartoum is under fire for providing military support to an Arab militia accused of an ethnic cleansing campaign that has left 30,000 people dead and 1 million homeless.

In a rare news conference Wednesday, the Sudanese ambassador to Moscow said his country was “very satisfied” with Russia for filling a 12-jet order five months ahead of schedule.

The ambassador, Chol Deng Alak, dismissed concerns the new MiGs would be used to attack indigenous black tribes, saying they were bought to prevent Sudan from being “an easy target” for other nations.

“We are very satisfied with the delivery. We need these jets to safeguard our economic interests,” Alak said.

But Amnesty International researchers say they had received testimonies from civilians in Sudan who claimed to have been bombed by Russian-made MiGs and Ukrainian Antonov general-use transport craft operated by the Sudanese air force.

“Just as the UN Security Council starts discussing a resolution against Sudan, Russia sends its MiGs,” Amnesty researcher Benedicte Goderiaux said by telephone from London.

“This makes Russia indirectly responsible,” she said, adding that Amnesty and other human rights groups are working with a number of UN member countries to get an all-out arms embargo introduced against Khartoum.

Khartoum is coming under increasing pressure from the international community for its failure to stop racial attacks by the janjaweed, a well-armed Arab militia operating out of the western region of Darfur.

The United States has accused Khartoum of backing janjaweed fighters in a campaign of ethnic cleansing marked by burning and looting villages, murder and rape. The United Nations has called the conflict the worst humanitarian crisis in the world at the moment.

Although the timing for MiG, which agreed to arm Sudan with warplanes back in 2001, is clearly unfortunate, it is unlikely that the fighters will be used in the conflict, said Ruslan Pukhov, chief editor of Moscow Defense Brief, a military magazine. “The militia is using small arms and light weapons. They can be using Antonov transports to drop bombs, but using MiGs would be ineffective,” he said.

Pukhov said Sudan needs the jets to counter neighboring Egypt, which has more than 100 U.S.-made F-16s.

For its part, MiG said the deal with Sudan should pave the way for future orders and help open the way for deals with other states in Africa, where the company has not played a major role.

Sudan is the 29th country to own and operate MiG-29s, and although the jet has been in service for more than 20 years, MiG general director Valery Toryanin said demand is rising in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The contract with Sudan is the first major one to be completed by MiG since Toryanin took over the company late last year at a time when its future was in doubt. “Timely and quality delivery of the contract allows us to look forward to a follow-up,” he said.

MiG hurried to deliver the 12 jets — 10 MiG-29SE fighters and two MiG-29UB combat trainers — so that the Sudanese air force could show them off during the upcoming celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the republic’s armed forces, he said.

Toryanin said in all this year, MiG would clear 36 jets from its assembly and repair facilities and deliver them to foreign clients. Twenty of the 36 are new, the rest are being upgraded or repaired, he said.

“We are confident of large orders,” he said, adding that MiG expects to sell about 200 jets and increase its order books to $2 billion in the “near future.”

“We have had delays on some contracts but we are speeding ahead with our facilities working in two to three shifts,” he said.

Toryanin admitted that MiG is in talks with Algeria, but refused to comment on reports that Algiers is ready to buy 50 fighters.