Belarus says arms sales to Sudan legal

MINSK, Nov 17, 2004 (Belapan) — A human rights watchdog Amnesty International has made public a report saying that Belarus, China and Russia have been supplying Sudan with weapons used in the conflict in the Darfur province.

The report also says that Belarus has shipped military equipment and spare parts to Sudan, including tanks and artillery. Amnesty International claims that armaments sold by Belarus, China and Russia were actively deployed against people in Darfur.

As Belapan learnt from the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Andrey Savinykh, Belarus sold military equipment to Sudan prior to the outbreak of the conflict in Darfur and such sales were not restricted under international law, including sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.

Consequently, cooperation between Belarus and Sudan “did not run counter to the international obligations undertaken by Belarus”, Savinykh said.

Material from the BBC Monitoring Service — Original text in Russian