Darfur: July 2008 Archives
The Christian Science Monitor
July 18, 2008
Like a marathoner at the finish line, China seems whipped. It struggled two decades to host the Olympics that open in three weeks. It has spent about $50 billion, pumped up its athletes, spiffed up Beijing, and fended off calls for a boycott. Now it may wonder if the effort will be worth it.
The Games themselves will, of course, be the world's main focus for two weeks after the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies. And thousands of athletes will fulfill once again the purpose of the modern Olympics, as stated by founder Pierre de Coubertin: "to bring together in a radiant union all the qualities which guide mankind to perfection."
But these Olympics also came with two political expectations, both of which are not even close to earning a medal.
One is human rights in China. The International Olympic Committee, in awarding the Games seven years ago, pointed to the Communist Party's record in suppressing dissent and said it expected that "openness, progress, and development in many areas will be such that the situation will be improved." The IOC also said athletes have "an absolute right" during the Games to speak out. The party itself did not publicly agree to improve its record, but the head of China's bidding team did say the Beijing Games would "benefit the further development of our human rights cause."
If anything, China's human rights record has worsened, as seen clearly during this spring's crackdown on Tibet's Buddhist monks. Last year, the number of arrests for "endangering state security" was at their highest since 2000.
And China's hand in world atrocities, such as Darfur and Zimbabwe, has also worsened. Steven Spielberg quit as artistic adviser for the Olympic ceremonies over China's backing of Sudan.
Why would China do this? These Olympics may simply serve as a pretext for the party to keep an authoritarian hold over 1.3 billion Chinese, who are increasingly revolting against corrupt rule. Not only do the Olympics justify crackdowns, but Chinese leaders have shown again and again that they will use foreign protests to whip up nationalist pride.
Those actions undercut the second expectation of these Olympics: to celebrate China's economic progress and its emergence as a power.
China's leaders may have thought the Beijing Olympics would serve the same purpose as the 1964 Games did for Japan: a coming-out party. Instead, the many protests, such as the interruptions of the torch relay, and the strong possibility of protests in Beijing during the Games, are likely to lower the PR boost.
The 2008 Olympics could end up like the 1936 Berlin Games, in which Hitler tried to promote Nazi (and Aryan) superiority, only to have American blacks, such as Jesse Owens, win track events. But these Games may not be the PR disaster of the 1980 Moscow Games that were widely boycotted after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were overturned within years after their Games. A better model for China would be the 1988 Seoul Games. During the run-up to those Olympics, the South Korean people used the coming event to rise up and force an end to a dictatorship. Now that was an example of "qualities which guide mankind to perfection."
By AsiaNews.it
July 14, 2008
An investigation by the BBC provides, for the first time, proof of Chinese jets and heavy weaponry used against civilians, sold in spite of the embargo. Beijing is not responding, while the UN is asking to examine the evidence.
China is selling arms to Sudan and training its pilots to fly the Chinese Fantan A5 jet, in violation of the United Nations embargo. The accusation is made by the authoritative British Broadcasting Corporation, at the conclusion of an investigation.
The government of Sudan has for some time been accused of using airplanes to strike civilians, but it was never possible to prove what kind of jet was being used. Now satellite photos show Chinese Fantan jets leaving the airport of Nyala in February and June, in southern Darfur, and the BBC says that these are the only jets on the base. It reports testimonies of air raids against civilian targets, with many victims.
The news agency says that two tanks with anti-aircraft weapons have also been filmed in the area, believed to be part of a group of 212 military vehicles that in 2005 the UN "suspected" China of sending to Khartoum, without being able to find proof. Eyewitnesses have reported that these vehicles were used in December in the attack on the city of Sirba, in western Darfur, to strike residences. They launch missiles that explode on impact, scattering deadly shrapnel.
There is no comment from the Chinese government, while the UN intends to examine the evidence from the BBC. The embargo is intended to prevent genocide in Darfur, where it is estimated that 300,000 have already been killed and two million displaced. Beijing has been repeatedly accused of violating the embargo, and has defended itself by first denying any arms sales, and then saying that in any case its weapons are not used in Darfur.
Experts observe that the worldwide boycott against Sudan over Darfur has allowed China to become a privileged commercial partner, obtaining oil and raw materials in exchange. For some time, international public opinion has accused China of fostering government genocide, and in recent years it has even been proposed that the Olympics should be boycotted if Beijing does not make a serious effort to exact peace from Khartoum. Beijing responds that it is promoting economic development in the country, which helps the population.
卫星照片和证人表示北京不顾禁运向苏丹出售武器
--尽管联合国对苏丹实行禁运，但中国向苏丹出售武器、帮助喀土穆训练驾驶中国制造A5攻击机的飞行员。日前，权威的英国广播公司BBC在一项调查后发表报告，提出上述指控。
长期以来，苏丹政府被控利用飞机空袭平民。但是，却从未查证出采用什么型号的攻击机。现在，卫星照片显示，中国制造A5攻击机于今年二月和六月从达尔富尔南部的恩亚拉机场起飞。BBC表示，准备作证表明向平民发动空袭造成多人死亡。
英国通讯社还指出，在当地拍摄到了两辆军用卡车。据悉，是二OO五年联合国"怀疑"中国送给喀土穆的212辆军事车辆之一，但苦于没有证据。证人还表示，上述军备物资于去年十二月用在了打击达尔富尔地区西部西尔巴市军事行动中。
中国政府未对此作出任何评论。联合国表示会检验BBC提供的证据。禁运旨在防止达尔富尔的种族屠杀。据统计，当地已造成三十多万人死亡、两百万人流离失所。北京多次被指控违法禁运。对此，中国政府历来言词驳斥，否认出售武器。然后，又表示，总之上述武器并没有用在达尔富尔地区。
专家指出，世界性抵制苏丹，使中国得以成为喀土穆最主要的贸易伙伴，并首先赢得了石油和原材料。长期以来，国际舆论指责中国支持苏丹政府的种族屠杀。甚至在近几个月以来发出威胁，声称如北京不采取行动推动达尔富尔和平，将通过种种手段阻挠北京奥运会。北京的回应是，支持苏丹造福于民的经济发展。
thisislondon.co.uk from the Evening Standard
July 13, 2008
Military equipment and weapons made in China are being used against civilians in Darfur in violation of a United Nations arms embargo in the troubled region of Sudan.
One Chinese-built army truck is understood to have taken part in an attack on a village. And Chinese-built and maintained fighter jets are also being used to bomb and strafe civilians, it is claimed.
The findings, in a Panorama documentary to be shown tomorrow, come just four weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics and amid intense international pressure over China's close economic, diplomatic and military ties with oil-rich Sudan, as well as its human rights record in Tibet.
Film director Steven Spielberg resigned as an artistic adviser to the Games in February over Beijing's support of the Sudanese government. And actress Mia Farrow, a UN goodwill ambassador, has also sought to draw attention to the two countries' relationship, calling the Games the 'Genocide Olympics'.
By Hilary Andersson reporting from Darfur | BBC News
July 13, 2008
The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan's government militarily in Darfur.
The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005.
The BBC was also told that China was training fighter pilots who fly Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur.
China's government has declined to comment on the BBC's findings, which contravene a UN arms embargo on Darfur.
The embargo requires foreign nations to take measures to ensure they do not militarily assist anyone in the conflict in Darfur, in which the UN estimates that about 300,000 people have died.
More than two million people are also believed to have fled their villages in Darfur, destroyed by pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia.
Panorama traced the first lorry by travelling deep into the remote deserts of West Darfur.
They found a Chinese Dong Feng army lorry in the hands of one of Darfur's rebel groups.
The BBC established through independent eyewitness testimony that the rebels had captured it from Sudanese government forces in December.
The rebels filmed a second lorry with the BBC's camera. Both vehicles had been carrying anti-aircraft guns, one a Chinese gun.
Markings showed that they were from a batch of 212 Dong Feng army lorries that the UN had traced as having arrived in Sudan after the arms embargo was put in place.
The lorries came straight from the factory in China to Sudan and were consigned to Sudan's defence ministry. The guns were mounted after the lorries were imported from China.
The UN started looking for these lorries in Darfur three years ago, suspecting they had been sent there, but never found them.
"We had no specific access to Sudanese government army stores, we were not allowed to take down factory codes or model numbers or registrations etc to verify these kinds of things," said EJ Hogendoorn, a member of the UN panel of experts that was involved in trying to locate the lorries.
Culpability
China has chosen not to respond to the BBC's findings. Its public position is that it abides by all UN arms embargoes.
China has said in the past that it told Sudan's government not to use Chinese military equipment in Darfur.
Sudan's government, however, has told the UN that it will send military equipment wherever it likes within its sovereign territory.
An international lawyer, Clare da Silva, says China's point that it has taken measures in line with the arms embargo's requirements to stop its weapons from going to Darfur is meaningless.
"It is an empty measure to take the assurances from a partner who clearly has no intention of abiding by the resolution," she said.
Ms da Silva said the BBC's evidence put China in violation of the arms embargo.
The UN panel of experts on Darfur has said it wants to examine the BBC's evidence.
Homes scorched
The BBC found witnesses who said they saw the first Dong Feng which the BBC tracked down being used with its anti-aircraft gun in an attack in a town called Sirba, in West Darfur, in December.
"When it is shooting or firing there is nowhere for you to move and the sound is just like the sound of the rain. Then 'Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!'" said Hamaad Abakar Adballa, a witness in the Chadian refugee town of Birak.
The lorry's powerful anti-aircraft gun fired straight into civilian houses. The gun carries high calibre shells that explode on impact, spreading hot shards of metal and causing terrible wounds
Witnesses saw one hut take a direct hit from the gun:
"An intense wave of heat instantly sent all the huts around up in flames," one witness, Risique Bahar, said. "There was a lot of screaming."
In the attack on Sirba one woman was burnt to death, another horribly injured.
Genocide accusation
Sudan's government has been accused by the United States of genocide against Darfur's black Africans.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) say war crimes by Sudan's Arab-dominated government have included summary executions, rape and torture.
Recently the conflict has deteriorated into more confused fighting, with rebel and militia groups also fighting each other. Two hundred thousand people have been displaced already this year.
Malnutrition rates are set to soar in South Darfur later this year due to insecurity and drought.
Darfur's landscape is spotted with blackened circles representing the hundreds of the villages that were burnt down by government forces and their Janjaweed allies.
Air attacks
In these attacks Darfur's civilians have been hunted not just from the ground, but from the sky.
Most civilians who tell stories of aerial attacks talk about Russian made Antanovs and helicopter gunships.
Many also talk about fighter jets being used, but no-one has ever answered the question of which type of fighter jets these are.
Kaltam Abakar Mohammed, a mother of seven, watched three of her children being blown to pieces as they were attacked by a fighter jet on 19 February in the town of Beybey in Darfur.
The BBC has established that Chinese Fantan fighter jets were flying on missions out of Nyala airport in south Darfur in February.
Panorama acquired satellite photographs of the two fighters at the airport on 18 June 2008, and its investigations indicate these are the only fighter jets that have been based in Darfur this year.
When Kaltam heard the sound of fighting early that morning, she took her children and ran.
"We start running near the well," she said. "We hid behind a big rock. Something that looks like an eagle started coming from over there. It looked like an eagle but it made a funny noise."
When the plane unleashed two bombs Kaltam's five-year-old daughter, Nura, was dismembered from the chest up.
Her eight-year-old son, Adam, was killed instantly, as was her 20-year-old daughter, Amna.
Kaltam's 19-month-old grandson still has shrapnel in his head from the fighter jet bombing. He cries a lot and often calls out for his mother, but she was killed in the attack.
Kaltam's 13-year-old girl, Hawa, cannot grasp what she saw happen that day to her brother and two sisters. She rarely speaks now.
Pilot training
The Chinese Fantan jets are believed to have been delivered to Sudan in 2003 before the current UN arms embargo was imposed on Darfur.
But the BBC has been told by two confidential sources that China is training Fantan fighter pilots.
Sudan imported a number of fighter trainers called K8s two years ago - they are designed to train pilots of fighters like Fantans.
"Clearly this is what they used to train for operations with the Fantans," said Chris Dietrich, a former member of the UN panel on Darfur.
International lawyer Ms da Silva says if China is training Fantan pilots, this represents another Chinese violation of the UN arms embargo.
"The terms of the embargo cover not only just the supply of weapons, military vehicles, paramilitary equipment. It also covers training any technical assistance, so the training of pilots obviously falls within the scope of the embargo."
There are strong economic ties between the China and Sudan.
China buys most of Sudan's oil and believes that what Sudan needs is good business partners, help with development and a solid peace process in Darfur, instead of confrontation and sanctions from the West.
So when China's President Hu Jintao visited Sudan in 2007 he wrote off millions of dollars worth of debt and donated a multi-million pound interest free loan for a new presidential palace to Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.
In April last year, China's military leaders pledged to strengthen co-operation with Sudan.
Panorama: China's Secret War will be on BBC One at 2030 BST on Monday 14 July 2008.
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