With flights from Khartoum to Beijing running direct, illicit weapons trading finds easier route
China, an instrumental supporter of Omar al-Bashir and his murderous regime, proudly announced a new flight direct from Beijing to Khartoum earlier this week. The flight, provided by Hainan Airlines, China’s largest privately-owned air transport company, is launching its maiden direct flight between Beijing and the Sudanese capital next Tuesday. Interestingly, the Beijing-Khartoum flight is Hainan’s second to Africa – the first was a flight to Luanda, Angola…..another of the continent’s top oil-producing countries. These flights are clearly about business.
Additionally, the timing is interesting in terms of the priorities it reveals. Hainan only has one North American destination in service: Seattle. The Khartoum route service coincides with approval to begin a second North American route to Honolulu. That’s two American routes for one Sudanese route….Furthermore Hainan has only two current destinations in Western Europe: Brussels and Berlin, with a bid for Dusseldorf. It has five routes to Russia, no stranger to illicit arms deals with Sudan.
So what’s the big deal? Well, aviation links between China and Sudan deserve extra scrutiny. Why? Because first, the illegal deployment of aviation assets was a major factor in violation of the Sudan arms embargo as cited by the United Nations Panel of Experts report released last month. Further, private companies have been central to these violations, and many have been nonresponsive or uncooperative toward the panel’s inquiries. Finally, the vast majority of ammunition and weapons found in Darfur, POST-EMBARGO, were manufactured by Chinese companies in China. That means that military materiel was illegally transported from China to Sudan somehow. The report calls for greater transparency and accountability in their movement, citing:
