China will send a military engineering unit to help strengthen the overtaxed African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, the Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday, following criticism that Beijing has not done enough to support peace efforts in the region.
A spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, did not say how many Chinese soldiers would be dispatched or what their duties would be, describing them as "multifunctional" military engineers. U.S. officials in Washington estimated the number at around 300, the Reuters news agency reported.
The decision to help bolster the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers was seen mainly as a gesture to underline Chinese support for a U.N.-administered solution to the four-year-old conflict in western Sudan's Darfur region. Since an armed secessionist revolt began there in 2003, as many as 450,000 people have died from violence and disease and about 2.5 million have fled their homes.
In recent weeks, the Darfur crisis has become particularly sensitive in China because of suggestions in the United States and Europe that people should boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics to demonstrate opposition to Chinese policies in Sudan. China, which has deep economic and military ties there, has been widely criticized for failing to bring strong pressure on the government to persuade it to accept a large force of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.
The ties include large oil purchases and extensive arms sales. The human rights group Amnesty International recently charged that the purchases and sales have been continuing despite U.N. calls for an embargo. Jiang, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, declined to respond to questions about the Amnesty charges. But she said China's arms sales to Sudan are strictly controlled, include only conventional weapons and do not violate U.N. regulations.
Five of the African Union peacekeepers were killed April 1, leading to warnings that the Darfur situation could deteriorate further unless more is done to stop the fighting. Clashes involving the Sudanese army, allied militias and a half-dozen rebel groups have erupted regularly despite a peace agreement reached a year ago. Fifteen A.U. soldiers have been killed since the peacekeepers were stationed in Darfur in 2004.
The U.N. Security Council decided in August to send more than 20,000 peacekeeping troops and police officers to halt the bloodshed, which the Bush administration has described as genocide. But the Sudanese government, headed by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has insisted that Sudanese authorities should retain control over the rebellious area and suggested that the African Union force should be allowed to do the job.
As negotiations continue about the full U.N. force, Bashir has accepted a 3,500-member interim U.N. force designed to strengthen the African Union units already on the spot. The Chinese engineers were being dispatched as part of those reinforcements, which have been called a "heavy support package," U.S. officials said.
Rejecting the criticism from abroad, Jiang said China also has "a positive attitude" toward getting the full-strength U.N. force to Darfur. Throughout the struggle, however, the Chinese government has insisted that whatever the United Nations does should first be approved by Bashir's government. Citing that stand, it abstained when the Security Council voted in August to send 20,000 peacekeepers.
So the Chinese Government, one considered to be one of the bad guys by our Administration and Jack Bauer are assisting in the Darfur crisis. Of course we could have troops there if they weren't too busy fighting and dying in an oilman's war. How bad does this look, a Communist country is assisting in Africa, a location that to my knowledge they haven't helped with much in the past. We are being upstaged by China and this is all on your shoulders Dubya.
Then again, this may be to just cover their own ass in regards to arming the various sides in this conflict along with the Russians.
via New York Times, May 9, 2007:
China and Russia are supplying arms to Sudan that are being used to fuel the violence in the Darfur region, in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.
“The irresponsible transfer of arms to Sudan and its neighbors are a significant factor in the massive human rights catastrophe in Darfur and its spread into eastern Chad,” Amnesty International said.
The report said “the bulk” of the arms were transferred from China and Russia, without giving specific figures. It added that Beijing and Moscow should have been aware that their military equipment was being used for attacks on civilians.
A Sudanese government spokesman, Bakri Mulah, denied the report’s accusations, saying, “It is the sort of claim that has no material proof.” A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Jiang Yu, said Chinese sales to African nations were “very limited and small in scale,” but refused to say whether any were being made to Sudan. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “no Russian weapons have been shipped to Darfur.”
In March 2005, the Security Council extended an arms embargo already in force in Darfur for the rebels and the militias to include Sudan’s government.
The Amnesty report said the group was particularly concerned about Russian Mi-24 helicopter gunships acquired by Sudan that were said to be used for attacks in Darfur.
A photo of three Chinese “Fantan” fighter jets on the tarmac of an airport in southern Darfur was also in the report.
So, we have China sending troops over to "assist" with the Darfur crisis at the same time Amnesty International releases this report, coincidence? Perhaps, they may have merely buckled to the international pressure, or they could be doing the work of covering their ass and disobeying the UN embargo of weapons in the region.
You know what is truly sad about this entire situation, it's that George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Elie Wiesel and other non government workers have done more to help the region then governments have. Why is it individual citizens are having to Save Darfur and politicians only talk about it when there is a rally at your doorstep?
