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China breaking UN embargo in Sudan: BBC report
London (AFP) July 13, 2008 China is breaking the United Nations arms embargo on Sudan, providing military equipment and training pilots to fly Chinese jets, the BBC said Sunday, citing an investigation by its journalists. Citing two confidential sources, the broadcaster said China was training pilots to fly Chinese Fantan fighter jets, and that Sudan had imported several fighter trainers called K8s two years ago. It obtained satellite photographs of the planes, reportedly believed to have been delivered to Sudan in 2003 -- the UN arms embargo was imposed in March 2005 -- at an airport in Nyala in south Darfur last month. The BBC said it had established, without citing its sources, that the jets were flying out of Nyala on missions in February. The broadcaster said that China had declined to comment on the report, which will be broadcast Monday evening. A UN panel of experts had asked to examine the evidence compiled by the documentary team, the BBC added. The investigators said they had also found one Dong Feng Chinese army lorry in the hands of a rebel group in Darfur. It cited independent eyewitness testimony saying the lorry had been captured from Sudanese government forces in December. A second lorry was filmed by rebels using a BBC camera. Both vehicles were carrying anti-aircraft guns, one of which was Chinese, said the broadcaster. Serial numbers on both lorries showed they were part of a batch of 212 Dong Feng lorries traced by the UN as having been sent to Sudan after the 2005 arms embargo was imposed. The anti-aircraft guns had been installed after they arrived in Sudan. According to the BBC, quoting witnesses, the anti-aircraft guns were fired into civilian houses in the town of Sirba in west Darfur in December. Monday's BBC report will come the same day that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague is expected to name the President Omar al-Beshir of Sudan a war crimes suspect. The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth. The UN has said that 300,000 people have died in Darfur and more than 2.2 million have been displaced since 2003 -- the Sudanese government puts the number of fatalities at 10,000. China, the main buyer of Sudan's oil and a key investor in the economy, has repeatedly been accused of not doing enough to make Khartoum stop the brutal campaign. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Russia, China veto UN sanctions on Zimbabwe
United Nations (AFP) July 11, 2008China and Russia on Friday vetoed targeted UN sanctions on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe over his disputed re-election, prompting an angry reaction from the United States which cast doubt on Moscow's reliability as a G8 partner. |
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