China's Role in Darfur Genocide
Part of the reason the world has been slow in coming to grips with the Darfur genocide is that it wasn't triggered by an easy to define war between countries, races or religions. The Darfur Genocide is a war among black Sudanese Muslims and its origin is a murky concoction of poverty, history, access to water and oil reserves, and the political ambitions of a few men.
Its origin aside, the Darfur genocide is being perpetuated by the government of Sudan arming and collaborating with a militia called Janjaweed to wipe out villages in Darfur, an extremely poor but large area - larger than Spain - to access oil reserves and wage war against the rebel groups opposed to the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir.
The result has been catastrophic for Darfur's civilians. The Janjaweed and the Sudanese government troops have burnt or bombed 3,000 villages, killed 400,000 people, raped an untold number of women and created 2.5 million refugees, many of whom now fill the over-stretched UN refugee camps along the Sudanese-Chadian border.
The international response to the Darfur genocide has been weak and slow at best, but some countries have imposed economic restrictions and sanctions to pressure the Sudanese government to stop killing and raping its citizens.
For economic sanctions to work, however, the international community must be united, and this is where China comes into the picture. Instead of joining the sanctions effort, China sees it as an opportunity to gain the dominant shares of the Sudanese oil, and has been brandishing its UN Security Council veto power to protect the Sudanese government against such sanctions.
As a result, China has become Sudan's largest trading partner, largest foreign investor, largest shareholder of the consortium that extracts oil from Sudan, and the recipient of 60% of Sudanese oil. And since Sudan uses 70% of the oil profits to arm its army and the Janjaweed, China is the largest financier of the Darfur genocide.
Who is supplying arms to Sudan? It's China again. And not content to simply export AK-47s, anti-personnel mines, howitzers, tanks, helicopters and bombers to Sudan, China has built three arms factories in Sudan to accelerate the production of arms that are used to kill Darfur's civilians.
Our Request to China:
1. Stop supplying arms to Sudan.
2. Stop impeding UN resolutions against Sudan.
3. Leverage economic and military clout with Omar al-Bashir to pressure him to stop destroying villages, raping women, killing people and hindering humanitarian aid workers.
Relevant Links:
http://www.savedarfur.org/newsroom/policypapers/briefing_paper_the_genocide_in_darfur/
http://www.darfurgenocide.org/learn.php
http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=africa&c=darfur
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3060&l=1
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sudan_darfuroverview.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3496731.stm
http://www.protectdarfur.org/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042101752.html