China blocks efforts to sanction Sudan over Darfur crisis

By Steven Edwards CanWest News Service | canada.com
May 30, 2007

China emerged Tuesday as the main obstacle to ratcheting up international pressure on Sudan over Darfur, brushing off new efforts by the United States and other Western countries to end the violence in the western Sudanese province.

Officials in Beijing spoke out against Washington's plan to tighten U.S. sanctions against the Arab-led government in Khartoum even before President George W. Bush unveiled it.

They also criticized a U.S. and British pledge to ask the United Nations Security Council to add to earlier global sanctions aimed at forcing Khartoum to allow UN peacekeeping troops to enter Darfur and join an overwhelmed African Union force.

China, which has extensive investments in Sudan's oil industry, said "pressure and sanctions" would not help resolve problems - but trade would.

Human rights groups have campaigned vigorously for increased pressure on Khartoum, which they and Western governments say is behind much of the killing, rape and displacement of black Dafuris.

But the Chinese position threatens to scuttle any new Security Council action because China is one of the body's permanent five veto-bearing members.

Bush said he is ordering new U.S. action because Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir continues to use the Sudanese military and government-aligned Arab militias to attack black Sudanese rebels and civilians in a battle for land in Darfur.

He added the Sudanese leader also blocked international peacemaking efforts despite promising to help end the violence, which Western officials say has resulted in more than 200,000 deaths over four years.

"I held off implementing these steps because the United Nations believed that President Bashir could meet his obligations to stop the killing," Bush said. "Unfortunately... President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction."

The Sudanese government called the new U.S. sanctions "unfair and untimely," pointing out it has "agreed" to allow 3,000 UN troops to join the African force - although none of them have been deployed.

"These American measures come at a time when Sudan is actively discussing peace in Darfur," said Ali Sadiq, a foreign ministry spokesman in Khartoum.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon also said he'd prefer to give the Sudanese more time.

"As far as I am concerned, I have just begun consultations," he said.

Canada implemented the earlier UN sanctions, which target Sudanese officials believed to be driving the violence through travel bans and asset freezes.

The new U.S. measures bar 30 Sudanese government firms - most of them in the oil business - from the U.S. banking system. Another company suspected of shipping arms to Sudan is subject to the same exclusion, as are three new individuals, including a rebel leader.

Bush outlined U.S. proposals for a new UN resolution.

"It will impose an expanded embargo on arms sales to the government of Sudan. It will prohibit the Sudanese government from conducting any offensive military flights over Darfur. It will strengthen our ability to monitor and report any violations," he said.

The current resolution calls on Sudan to end military flights deemed "offensive," but banning them suggests enforcement measures would be taken.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tuesday the 27-member bloc was "open to consider" both an increased sanctions package and a French proposal to create a "humanitarian corridor" into Darfur from neighbouring Chad.

Canada has called on the Security Council to fulfill the terms of the current resolution and, though not a Council member, is expected to back efforts for a new one when the matter is discussed Wednesday at a Group of Eight diplomatic meeting outside Berlin.

In Beijing, China's representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, stopped short of threatening to use China's Security Council veto to short-circuit a new resolution.

"It's still too early to speak of," he said.

But he added that "expanding sanctions can only make the problem more difficult to resolve."

Canada did about $160 million worth of trade with Sudan in 2006, according to Statistics Canada, importing mainly precious stones, and exporting mainly grains and machinery. But while Canada's Talisman Energy Inc. withdrew its investments in the Sudanese oil patch in 2003, China has maintained its involvement -- leading to charges China's support for Sudan is a direct result of its quest for energy to feed its fast growing economy.