A BBC report alleging that China is breaking a UN arms embargo on Sudan is biased, the Chinese special envoy to Darfur said in comments published yesterday.
Envoy Liu Guijin (劉貴今) said China’s arms sales to Sudan were only small scale and that the trade in military equipment was not fuelling the conflict in Darfur, the China Daily newspaper said.
“The program is strongly biased,” Liu said, said the English-language daily, which is often used by the government to deliver messages to a foreign audience.
“China’s arms sales were very small scale and never made to non-sovereign entities. We have strict end-user certificates,” he said.
The BBC broadcast a program on Monday alleging that China was breaking the UN arms embargo by providing military equipment and training pilots to fly Chinese jets.
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.
The BBC said it 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 few shots of Chinese trucks in Darfur cannot be used to accuse China of fuelling the conflict in Darfur,” Liu was quoted as saying.
Liu, citing an unnamed African politician, said the Darfur conflict was continuing because Western countries were providing arms to rebel groups.
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 is the main buyer of Sudan’s oil and a key investor in its economy.
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