“It started firing. People began screaming. The shooting continued until the houses were burning. The woman was burned on her legs. Her body had a bullet hole that went from her chest to her back.” Such statements have tragically become routine since the start of the Darfur genocide, but what makes this quote of particular note is that the “it” was identified as a Chinese-made anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of a Dong Feng truck, also manufactured in China.

Despite a UN embargo on arms transfers into Darfur, several countries, including Russia and China, continue to funnel weapons to the Sudanese government by exploiting a loophole. The existing embargo allows weapons sales to the Government of Sudan provided they are not bound for Darfur — but the Sudanese government has publicly stated that it has every right to transfer military equipment wherever it wishes.

In an attempt to stop the transfers of Russian-made helicopters, Chinese fighter jets, and assorted small arms, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) have authored Senate Resolution 660, which calls for the U.S. to push the UN Security Council to expand the arms embargo to cover all of Sudan. The resolution also highlights Russian and Chinese arms shipments to Sudan and finds that any further shipments to the Government of Sudan, given its refusal to keep their arms out of Darfur, would be in violation of the arms embargo.

While it may seem unlikely that two permanent members of the Security Council would cut off lucrative arms sales they profit from, this resolution will build public pressure for expanding the arms embargo in Sudan. If you would like to help in this effort, please email or call your Senators and urge them to support S. Res. 660.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Arms Trade, Bush Administration, United Nations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.