Posted on behalf of Congressman Jim McGovern (MA), Co-Chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
As millions of people around the world get ready to tune in and watch the Olympics in Beijing, they are probably unaware that their TVs likely share a common trait with the weapons used to kill up to 400,000 people in Darfur: they bear the stamp “Made in China.”
By some estimates, Sudan buys 90 percent of its small arms from China, as well as big ticket items such as A5 Fantan ground-attack fighter jets. Despite an existing UN Security Council arms embargo for Darfur, China and Sudan are working together to exploit a loophole to keep the arms flowing. Specifically, China argues that it sells weapons to the Sudanese regime in Khartoum, and that it cannot be held responsible if Sudan then sends those weapons on to Darfur in violation of the embargo. For its part, Sudan doesn’t much care if it violates yet another Security Council resolution, so long as it continues to receive the arms it needs to fuel its genocidal campaign in Darfur, as the BBC and others have recently documented. Despite this recent evidence, China has been unwilling to demand that the Sudanese government abide by the Security Council mandated arms embargo, and instead continues to turn a blind eye to these violations and cash Sudan’s checks.
Fifty-three of my colleagues and I recently sent President Bush a letter asking him to urge the Chinese to end their arms sales while he attends the Olympics in Beijing, and to seek a United Nations Security Council Resolution expanding the Darfur arms embargo to include all sales to the al-Bashir regime, thus closing the arms embargo loophole. China may well veto such a resolution, but their political and military support for the genocidal government of Sudan would be laid bare for the world to see.
China’s continued arms sales may, in fact, put them in violation of their international obligations under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide. At a minimum, China’s weapons transfers to Sudan are helping to fuel the conflict. Given China’s continued intransigence and Sudan’s continued flagrant violations of Security Council resolutions, the only way to stop the flow of Chinese arms to Darfur is to impose an arms embargo which stretches past the borders of Darfur and bars all weapons sales to the murderous regime of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
TeresaC says:
What about urging President Bush to stop selling US weapons to various countries around the world? Tis the problem, everyone does it and the US is included.