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Russian, Chinese Arms Fuel Conflict in Sudan, Says Amnesty
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Written By: Thalif Deen/ipsnews
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Posted Date: 2/9/2012 10:10:23 PM
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Russia and China, two veto-wielding permanent members of the
Security Council described as key arms suppliers to the
embattled regime in Syria, are now accused of supplying
weapons and fuelling an ongoing conflict in another military
hotspot: Sudan.
In a report released Thursday, the London-based
Amnesty International
(AI) said weapons sales by China and Russia, including ammunition,
helicopter gunships, attack aircraft, air-to-ground rockets and
armoured vehicles, have resulted in serious human rights violations
in Darfur, Sudan.
AI said that arms supplied to the government of Sudan are used in
Darfur both directly by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and government-
backed militia, including the Popular Defence Force (PDF).
The PDF formally commanded and equipped by SAF operates alongside
them, including by being deployed on SAF vehicles, while Chinese-made
small arms ammunition is being used in Darfur by SAF, other Sudanese
security agencies and SAF-backed militia groups.
"These arms transfers highlight the urgent need to strengthen the
existing ineffectual U.N. arms embargo and for governments to agree
on an effective Arms Trade Treaty (which is currently under
negotiation)," it said.
Asked about these weapons sales, Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher
at the Arms Transfers Programme of the
Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute (SIPRI), told IPS that AI's conclusions are fully
in line with those of the reports of U.N. panels of experts which
have investigated arms flows into Darfur, and which have described
the weapons used in Darfur.
Confirming that Russia and China are currently the largest arms
suppliers to Sudan, he said that in the case of Russia this is
authenticated by the Russian submissions to the annual U.N. register
on conventional arms.
Similarly, Belarus reported itself that it had supplied Su-25 combat
aircraft to Sudan.
However, he said, two countries known to have supplied weapons to
Sudan in recent years are missing from the AI report: Iran and
Ukraine.
Ukraine has reported to the U.N. register that it exported 90 tanks
to Sudan in 2010. Both Russia and the Ukraine have also supplied
military equipment to South Sudan, he added.
AI said an estimated 70,000 people were displaced from eastern Darfur
in 2011 in a wave of ethnically targeted attacks against the Zaghawa
community by Sudanese government forces and militias.
"China and Russia |
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