• China’s bilateral relations with African states are largely determined by its principles of non-interference in the domestic affairs of other countries. However China is gradually using diplomatic means to push for the resolution of some conflicts such as that in Darfur.

• China is becoming a major supplier of conventional arms to African states. Critics argue that some of these weapons have been used in human rights violations and have ended up in the wrong hands, for example in Sudan, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• China has increased its troop contributions to UN peacekeeping missions 20-fold since 2000, with the majority based in Africa. It has also participated in multilateral anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden.

• China is set to play a greater role in post-conflict reconstruction through its economic engagement. Elsewhere its demand for energy and minerals has meant that it has been drawn into conflicts surrounding natural resources.

Chinese firms are deeply involved, for example, in hydropower projects such as Ethiopia’s Gibe 3 and Sudan’s Kajbar dams, which threaten to spark conflict by displacing populations and intensifying competition over scarce water resources. But Saferworld’s China Programme Manager, Bernardo Mariani, stresses that responsibility for Africa lies ultimately in Africa:

“Given its deepening stake in African stability and development, China can play a critical role in promoting peace and security on the continent. Western states and China must work co-operatively in their approach towards Africa. There are certainly shared goals, but also shared failures to overcome.

“Ultimately, however, it is African leaders and civil society that hold the key to addressing conflicts and guiding the international community, including China, to show how support is best delivered to these ends.”

The Guardian’s report on these findings points to an ongoing series from South Africa’s The Daily Maverick, “comparing and contrasting the remnants of white colonialism with the rise of the Chinese” in Africa. The first instalment, from Namibia, echoes Mariani’s assertion that Africa holds the reins:

We are currently writing a book about the Chinese in Africa – this piece will be one of a series we file for The Daily Maverick from the road – and it is way too early in our research to cast stone-cold judgment on Chinese business practices in southern Africa. Indeed, many of the people we spoke to put the blame squarely at the feet of rotten government officials, who are only too happy to engage in the Chinese cultural practice of gift-taking and receiving. (With emphasis here on the receiving.) But one thing is certain – Namibia is a country in flux, confronted with a flood of foreign money that is Janus-faced in its ambiguity: it represents both unprecedented opportunity, and carries with it the threat of end-times.

There is one other thing, a further frisson that fires up young trade union organisers and the other crusaders we’ve met so far: the agency in this epochal moment belongs to Namibians. The Chinese, as they’ve proved time and again, will behave according to the rules on the ground. It’s up to Namibians to make – and enforce – those rules appropriately.

Perhaps this is what we feel on the streets of Windhoek. This sense of change, of a 20-year-old country being forced to make real, grown-up decisions key to its future and its soul. Every country, every people, every person is confronted with such game-changing choices at some point or other. This is Namibia’s turning point. No one writes the ending for them.

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Post tags: Africa, Congo, Darfur, Ethiopia, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, UN Peacekeeping
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A confidential United Nations report saying Chinese bullets were used in attacks on peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region of Sudan is an “attack” on China and shouldn’t be made public, a Chinese diplomat said.

Yang Tao said the allegation that Chinese ammunition was used by Darfur militias, suggesting a possible violation of the UN arms embargo on the region, was no more than a “guess” and that only “proven scientific, independent, objective views” should be included in such reports.

“It is an attack on China,” Yang said in an interview.

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Post tags: arms sale, Darfur, UN
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China’s role in the six-power group and the UNSC is crucial. Its economic strength matters in the application of sanctions. Its diplomatic importance, as a permanent member of the UNSC and with the power of veto, will determine whether Iran feels constrained in its nuclear ambitions. China, as a rapidly industrialising power and a massive consumer of energy, is a huge market for Iranian exports. It is, in return, supplying Iran with Silkworm missiles. The relationship replicates China’s import of oil from Sudan and export of weapons for the atrocities committed by that regime in Darfur. The difference is merely that in Darfur the genocide has already happened, whereas President Ahmadinejad looks forward to the annihilation of Israel.

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Post tags: Darfur, diplomacy, Iran, Iran relations, UNSC
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On Sunday, the Chinese government granted the government of Sudan $3 million for the purposes of strengthening unity between the north and south of Sudan. The grant comes on the heels of a recent agreement between the two countries to enhance economic cooperation and trade and to open Chinese banks in Sudan.  In February 2009, China and Sudan will mark 50 years of relations. As the article notes, the level of trade relations between China and Sudan is significant:

China is Sudan’s leading commercial partner while Sudan is China’s third largest trade partner in Africa.The volume of trade exchange between the two countries in 2007 reached 5.6 billion US dollars, while the trade volume in the first nine months of 2008 was at 6.5 billion dollars comprising different sectors, particularly oil, machinery, equipments and goods.

China’s relationship with Sudan has been fraught with controversy, particularly regarding the Darfur crisis. To read more, please see these articles on China Digital Times.

Will Killing of Oil Workers Harden China’s Darfur Policy?
China Hostages ‘Killed in Sudan’ (Updated)
China Says Working With West To Avoid Darfur Strife

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The attack on Chinese oil workers and interests in Sudan comes as many international diplomats are hoping that China will influence its business partner, Sudan, to come to terms with rebel groups and end the six-year war in Darfur. While it is not clear who carried out the killings, the very proximity of Kordofan to both Darfur and to South Sudan – which had its own 21-year civil war against Sudan – is a sign that Sudan’s conflicts may widen and converge.

“This is very bad news,” says Alex de Waal, a Sudan expert at Harvard University. “The Chinese feel unfairly targeted by world opinion, and reasonably so, because they actually don’t have as much influence in Sudan as some people think. They can’t dictate what the Sudan government does.”

He says China might decided the risks are too great to continue oil operations in Sudan. “On the other hand … they need oil, and they are not as sensitive to losing people as the Americans or the British would be,” since they don’t have an open news media to criticize Chinese policy in Sudan.

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China Urges Security Council to Suspend ICC Indictment of Sudanese Leader

China on Thursday urged the UN Security Council to suspend the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

“China supports the reasonable request by the African Union and other organizations for the council to take early measures in accordance with the relevant provisions to suspend ICC’s indictment of the Sudanese leader,” he said.

“The proposed indictment of the Sudanese leader by the ICC prosecutor is an inappropriate decision made at an inappropriate time,” Wang said. “It will seriously undermine the mutual political trust and cooperation between the UN and the Sudanese government.” [...]

Wang said the parties involved in the Darfur peace process are currently engaged in vigorous political efforts to resolve the issue, and that no headway would be possible without the full cooperation of the Sudanese government.

China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guangya made the appeal after the 15-member body adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the UN-African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur (UNAMID), which expires Thursday. [...]

In related news, from AlJazeeraEnglish:

China Sends Troops to Darfur as Promised – 27 July 2008

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From CNN:

Senators Call for Truce in Darfur During Olympics

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators called for an Olympic truce in Darfur during the Beijing Olympics.

The senators introduced a resolution Thursday that urges China to pressure trading partner Sudan to end the violence that has claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and displaced 2.7 million others.

“The Chinese government hoped to show the world a new China with the Olympics, but instead the spotlight will be on their same old policies that disregard the rights of human beings,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., one of the resolution’s sponsors.

“It would be a tremendous step toward peace and human rights across the globe if China, joined by the international community, would commit to helping to bring an end to the bloodshed in Darfur and elsewhere in Africa.”

From AllAfrica:

China ‘Dumps’ Kitchen Sinks in Country

SA’s International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) has begun antidumping investigations into stainless steel sink imports from China and Malaysia after local manufacturers claimed that almost half the product value of these imports came from state incentives.

The antidumping [allegation] [...] claims China’s imports have surged to 60% of total imports from nothing only three years ago. Despite an import duty of 20% on stainless steel sinks, the price of imported products still undercuts locally manufactured sinks.[...]

In an agreement that trade consultants had warned could compromise local industries, SA had granted China market economy status and agreed to enhance debate on antidumping in return for China agreeing to the imposition of import quotas on cheap clothing and textile from that country. SA has not had a single successful antidumping investigation against China since granting it market economy status.

[A separate allegation] claims that Chinese manufacturers benefit from a host of incentives, including special economic zone incentives , grants for export performance, preferential loans, grants, preferential tax, reduced land use fees and preferential purchases from state-owned enterprises.

From Reuters:

China Dev. Bank to Invest More in African Farming

The China Development Bank plans further African farming investments as the continent tries to raise output to curb food inflation and shortages, Governor Chen Yuan told African finance ministers and bankers on Friday. [...]

“China Development Bank is anxious to work in the area of agriculture. Given the current scenario of a great shortage of food and food price hikes I believe African countries should put agricultural development as their top priority,” he said.

Addressing the IMF and World Bank Africa Caucus in Mauritania, Chen said African countries should grow cereals as well as cash crops such as rubber and pine, and upgrade their processing capacity to make value added agricultural projects. [...]

“China Development Bank is willing to share its experience and provide financing to agricultural development in Africa,” he said. [...]

China’s trade with Africa has surged in recent years, reaching $73 billion in 2007, Chen said.

In related news, also from Reuters:

Africa Finance Chiefs Eye Consensus on China Funds

African finance ministers and central bankers met IMF and World Bank counterparts on Friday hoping to hammer out guidelines on handling a tide of new investment into the continent, much from resource-hungry China. [...]

Traditional lenders like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank worry African states now benefiting from debt relief may run up new debt mountains they may find hard to sustain, especially if a commodities boom runs out of steam. [...]

Besides loans, deals with China often involve Chinese workers building roads and other infrastructure projects, while natural resources move the other way, and the sums are awesome.

Opposition politicians and anti-graft groups in Niger have criticised the lack of transparency surrounding a deal between the government and China’s state oil company CNCP which could be worth $5 billion to one of the poorest countries on earth. [...]

“The advantage of the new financiers is that they respond to a need that Africa has, which is infrastructure, whereas traditional donors focus on things like education,” said a finance official at the meeting who declined to be named. [...]

“A big concern is debt. Lots of debt has just been wiped out, and now with China coming, are we going to see a new cycle? Prices of oil and other resources are high at the moment, but if prices drop, African countries will still have to pay interest on loans from China,” the delegate said. [...]

The Chinese Developent Bank’s presence at the IMF-World Bank meeting demonstrated the sea change in African finance in recent years.

“Like it or not, China is a big part of Africa now,” another delegate said.

From Time:

A Chinese Color War

[...]The post-apartheid government [in South Africa] instituted an affirmative action program called Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) to redress the massive imbalance of economic power in favor of whites. BEE legislation relies for the most part on apartheid’s definitions of “black.” It is held to cover those excluded from power and privilege in the old order — African, Colored and Indian. But although they were also excluded, Chinese South Africans were passed over. The Chinese community fought back, and on June 18 this year, it won a ten-year legal battle to redress that slight. At a stroke, around 10,000 Chinese South Africans who had been South African citizens under apartheid officially became black, qualifying for the benefits of the BEE.

[A] book called Colour, Confusions and Concessions: the History of Chinese in South Africa by Melanie Yap and Daniel Leong Man [...] documents how a tiny minority in a land delineated by race have long been abused from all sides. [...]

Yap and Man [...] reveal evidence that Chinese may have settled in Africa long before the 17th century arrival of settlers from Europe. The first known map of southern Africa was drawn by Chinese cartographer Chu Ssu-pen in 1320. Sung dynasty porcelain (960-1279 AD) has been found at archaeological digs in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Chinese admiral Zheng He explored Africa’s east coast between 1405-1433. Most compelling of all, until a few years ago, there lived, north of Cape Town, tribes with light colored skin, Mongolian features and a language tonally similar to Mandarin, who traced their origins to 13th century Chinese sailors and call themselves Awatwa or “abandoned people.” Given the fact that not only the white population, but also the black African population migrated to what is now South Africa from further afield, Chinese South Africans feel as rooted here as anyone else.

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Post tags: Africa, Africa investment, anti-dumping, Darfur, ICC indictment, imf, South Africa, Sudan, World Bank
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If China continues — it is the main supplier of arms used in the genocide — then it may itself be in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Article III of the convention declares that one of the punishable crimes is “complicity in genocide”; that’s the crime that China may be committing if it goes on supplying arms used for genocide, even after the I.C.C. has begun criminal proceedings against the purchaser of those weapons.

Beijing seems unabashed. Incredibly, China and Russia are acting as Mr. Bashir’s lawyers, quietly urging the United Nations Security Council to intervene to delay criminal proceedings against him. Such a delay is a bad idea, unless Mr. Bashir agrees to go into exile. [...]

According to United Nations data, 88 percent of Sudan’s imported small arms come from China — and those Chinese sales of small arms increased 137-fold between 2001 and 2006. China has also sold military aircraft to Sudan, and the BBC reported this week that two Chinese-made A-5 Fantan fighter aircraft were spotted on a Darfur runway last month. The BBC also said that China is training Sudanese military pilots in Sudan.

Likewise, Human Rights First, in a report on Chinese weapons sales to Sudan, suggests that Chinese engineers supervise arms production at the Giad industrial complex outside Khartoum. Chinese military companies have also helped set up arms factories outside Khartoum at Kalakla, Chojeri and Bageer.

China Paper Decries Sudan’s Bashir Arrest Move

Not unexpectedly, a different view was expressed in People’s Daily, China’s top official newspaper, which amplified Beijing’s opposition to pursuing charges of genocide in Darfur.

Chinese officials have voiced concerns an indictment of Bashir could derail struggling peace efforts in Darfur, and Beijing also faces threats of protests over its ties with Sudan during the Olympic Games in August.

On Thursday, the People’s Daily, official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, added to criticism of the ICC.

“Don’t pour oil on fire,” said a commentary in the paper, adding that Darfur is “at a sensitive and crucial time.”

“Alleviating this problem demands all sides exercise prudence, consult on an equal basis and strive to cooperate, not rashly push for sanctions, indictments, verdicts and even issuing arrest warrants.”

China Boosts Peacekeepers in Darfur

The AFP reports one more reason for China’s concern over the ICC move:

A new company of Chinese engineers deployed to Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur on Thursday, boosting the number of UN-led peacekeeping troops to 8,000, a mission spokeswoman said.

“They’ve arrived; 172 arrived so that brings the number of the Chinese contingent to 315,” said Josephine Guerrero, spokeswoman for the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission UNAMID.

UNAMID is on high alert amid fears of a backlash after the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor on Monday sought an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

China-Africa Ties: Europe Should Not Panic

In a wide-ranging interview covering questions on human rights violations, arms deals with Zimbabwe and Kenya, low quality imports to Africa, and interactions with Presidents Mugabe and Bashir, the Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Zhang Ming, provided his answers to the African Executive.

Q.  How sure are we that China is not coming to re-colonise Africa?

We should look at things optimistically. India held the India – Africa Summit. Japan has arrived. Russia is planning to approach Africa. This should be good news to Africa. We won’t join military competition in Africa. China buys natural resources from Australia, and Canada among others but nobody raises eyebrows. Why are fingers pointed at us when we buy goods from Africa?

Over the past 50 years, China and Africa have exchanged sympathy, support and assistance to each other in national liberation; maintaining peace and promoting economical and social development. Now, especially after the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was held in Beijing in November 2006, China and Africa have established and are constantly developing a new type of strategic partnership, featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchange.

Q. What message do you have for our European friends?

I’d like them to know that China- Africa cooperation is an important component of international cooperation for development. It is neither targeted at any third party nor threatens the interest of any country. China takes an open, constructive and inclusive attitude to work together with the international community, including America, EU, India and Japan, among others, towards the peace and development of Africa.

China and Africa: A Rewarding Relationship

An opinion piece in the Times argues why the West should not assume that China’s influence in Africa is malignant:

As the World Bank has noted, Africa presents huge investment opportunities for those willing to take risks to reap high returns. Africa has reversed six decades of decline in its share of global trade. Most countries there are growing at higher rates than the world economy.

China’s increasing influence in Africa is often discussed without regard to this new situation. Chinese investment is a consequence of Africa’s growth, not the cause. Countries that grow 5-6 per cent a year for a decade need new roads, power stations and manufactured goods.

Only countries ostracised by the West, such as the Sudan, have China as their main commercial partner. China’s presence there is a sign of its weakness, not its strength. China has been left with markets too small for Western investors. [...]

But it is not Western governments that the Chinese appear to be upsetting. For years Western NGOs have sought to teach their domestic audiences that all that is required in Africa is small-scale, sustainable development. Oxfam encourages people to buy Africans a goat, some seed, condoms, a toilet, or even dung for Christmas. And all this comes with moral hectoring about Aids and the need for population control.

No wonder the Chinese, with their no strings attached investment policies are so welcomed across the continent. They get things done.

Anger at China’s Approval as Ivory Buyer

The AFP continues its coverage of the UN decision this week to allow China to import elephant ivory from Africa under strict conditions with a recent article focusing on criticisms by conservationists:

China’s approval for the first time as a bonafide buyer of ivory drew flak Wednesday from some conservationists who blame the country for stoking the illegal ivory trade.

One of the world’s biggest consumers of elephant ivory, China was given the go ahead on Tuesday to participate as a licensed buyer in an upcoming auction of 108 tonnes of ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

“This sale has literally given the green light to the international poaching syndicates and organised crime and will present a nightmare to poorly resourced wildlife enforcement agencies in Africa,” said Animal Rights Africa.

“In real terms this represents the death of an estimated 7,699 South African elephants (1.8 tusks per elephant and 3.68kg per tusk),” said a statement from the organisation, which is based in South Africa.

For background on this story, please see previous CDT posts, China Gets Permission to Import Ivory From Africa and UN May Legalize Ivory Sales from Africa to China.

Chinese Trio Arrested with Elephant Tusks 

In related news, The Daily Nation reports that three Chinese nationals have been arrested in Nairobi while trying to smuggle out processed ivory.  

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) confirmed in a statement that its officers working with counterparts from the Kenya Airports Authority have arrested three Chinese nationals – two women and a man – with 2.2 kilograms of processed ivory at the airport.

The three were on their way to Harare, Zimbabwe when they were arrested and taken to the JKIA Police Station.  KWS spokesperson Kentice Tikolo said they failed to produce any valid CITES permits allowing them to travel with the carved trophies.

Senegal Says Mediterranean Union Will Split Africa

Reuters reports on the reactions in Africa regarding the launch of a Union for the Mediterranean. Mostly, there is fear that this may result in in a divided Sub-Saharan and Super-Saharan Africa. In many ways, China’s forays into Africa already reflect this devision. With the exception of Egypt, the vast majority of China’s activity is in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The newly launched Union for the Mediterranean will divide Africa north and south of the Sahara and create a two-speed cooperation with Europe in which black Africa will be relegated, Senegal’s president said on Wednesday.

In a statement issued in Dakar, President Abdoulaye Wade, an outspoken advocate of African unity, spelled out his objections to the 43-nation Mediterranean grouping inaugurated on Sunday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.

The new union brings together countries from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and aims to forge practical cooperation on issues like water, energy and education.

Wade, who has in the past chided Europe for falling behind other more recent aggressive investors in Africa like China and India, said the European continent was seeking “new blood” by uniting with North Africa’s Maghreb.

“But of course there are other obvious goals behind the Union for the Mediterranean initiative like Algeria’s oil and gas and Libyan oil,” he said.

He said even in Libya, “there are Mediterraneanists not very inclined towards black Africa”.

Zimbabwe inflation at 2,200,000%

From the BBC:

Zimbabwe’s annual rate of inflation has surged to 2,200,000%, official figures have shown.

The figure is the first official assessment of prices in the troubled African nation since February, when the rate of inflation stood at 165,000%.

Zimbabwe, once one of the richest countries in Africa, has descended into economic chaos largely blamed on the policies of President Robert Mugabe.

The US and the EU have imposed targeted sanctions, such as a travel ban and an assets freeze, on Mr Mugabe and his close allies. 

For background on China and Russia’s veto of the UN attempt to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, please see a previous CDT post, China Vetos UN Sanctions on Zimbabwe.

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Post tags: Africa, African Union, al-Bashir, arms shipment, Darfur, ivory trade, Oxfam, Sudan, UN Peacekeeping, Union of the Mediterranean, Zimbabwe
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China said Tuesday it was concerned about an International Criminal Court prosecutor’s decision to seek an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president on charges of genocide in the African country’s war-torn Darfur region.

Monday’s indictment marked the first time prosecutors at the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal have issued charges against a sitting head of state, though President Omar al-Bashir is unlikely to face trial any time soon.

“The ICC’s actions must be beneficial to the stability of the Darfur region and the appropriate settlement of the issue, not the contrary,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference.

Liu said China would continue to consult with other members of the U.N. Security Council about whether to block the International Criminal Court from issuing the arrest warrant, but said he “cannot speculate” what the results of the talks will be.

From Reuters:

“This presents China with many quandaries,” said He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading think-tank in Beijing.

“It will have many consequences that China won’t like. Our own peacekeepers could be threatened, and also this will seriously impede China’s space to mediate over Darfur and encourage dialogue between Sudan and the West.”

Liu confirmed that 172 Chinese peacekeepers will head to Darfur on Wednesday, bringing all of its 315 promised peacekeepers into place.

He Wenping and other observers did not expect China to move on its own to hold off the ICC, especially with Beijing determined to burnish its international image with the August Olympics.

From the BBC:

The Sudanese government has responded angrily after an international prosecutor accused President Omar al-Bashir of genocide in Darfur.

Sudan’s UN envoy said the International Criminal Court had no jurisdiction in Sudan and that it would not co-operate. Vice-President Ali Osman Taha said the evidence was false and indicated Sudan could try to halt the court’s work.

[...]

Sudan’s ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, told the BBC that Mr Bashir viewed the charges as a “political statement” and had no intention of co-operating with the ICC.

He criticised ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for indicting the president, whom he said had brought about a peace agreement to end Sudan’s civil war.

Also see previous CDT posts:

* Spotlight on China as Sudanese President is Indicted
* China ‘Is Fuelling War in Darfur’

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Post tags: 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Africa, al-Bashir, arms embargo, Darfur, genocide, He Wenping, Sudan, U.N. peacekeepers, United Nations
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A BBC report alleging that China is breaking a United Nations arms embargo on Sudan is biased, the Chinese special envoy to Darfur said in comments published here on Tuesday.

Envoy Liu Guijin 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, according to the China Daily newspaper. [...]

“China’s arms sales were very small scale and never made to non-sovereign entities. We have strict end-user certificates.”

The BBC broadcast a programme on Monday alleging that China was breaking the UN arms embargo by providing military equipment and training pilots to fly Chinese jets.

In related news, the BBC reports that the UN is pulling back staff from Darfur:

The United Nations is pulling back some non-essential staff deployed in Sudan’s restive Darfur region. It says the decision comes after recent violence and as a precaution after an international prosecutor accused Sudan’s president of genocide. Judges at the International Criminal Court have still to decide if there are reasonable grounds to issue an arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir.

Mr Bashir is quoted by Reuters as saying the accusations are lies.

On 8 July, seven Unamid peacekeepers were killed and 22 injured, seven critically, when they were attacked by heavily armed militia in northern Darfur.

A UN peacekeeping official told the BBC News website the decision to move non-essential UN staff temporarily to locations out of the country – many to Entebbe in Uganda – had been taken after that incident, and as a prudent measure in anticipation of possible Sudanese reaction to the prosecutor’s announcement that he is seeking a warrant against Mr Bashir.

Also see related CDT posts:

* China ‘Is Fuelling War in Darfur’
* Spotlight on China as Sudanese President is Indicted

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Post tags: Africa, al-Bashir, arms embargo, BBC, Darfur, genocide, Liu Guijin, Sudan, United Nations
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The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed genocide charges Monday against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, accusing him of masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.

The filing marked the first time prosecutors at the world’s first permanent, global war crimes court have issued charges against a sitting head of state, but al-Bashir is unlikely to be sent to The Hague any time soon. Sudan rejects the court’s jurisdiction, and senior Sudanese officials said the prosecutor was politically motivated to file the charges.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir to prevent the slow deaths of some 2.5 million people forced from their homes in Darfur and still under attack from government-backed janjaweed militia.

Moreno-Ocampo said it was up to the U.N. Security Council to “ensure compliance with the court’s decision.” Achieving unanimous backing for any action will be fraught with problems since two of the council’s members, China and Russia, are Sudan’s allies.

China, which is Khartoum’s biggest arms supplier and a major investor in its oil industry, already had indicated its opposition to an indictment. China’s United Nations ambassador said that any action against al-Bashir may put peacekeepers in Darfur at risk. And since the prosecutor announced his plan to bring charges against al- Bashir, council members met privately, with China and Russia warning that a direct move against the Sudanese president would jeopardize any future peace talks.

With its decision last week to veto a UN attempt to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and with al-Bashir now indicted, China’s overall foreign policy of non-interference and no-strings-attached investments is once again under the spotlight.  In what surely is very bad timing for the Chinese, the indictment comes only one month away from the start of the Olympics.

From the BBC:

Next month’s Beijing summer games have been dubbed the ‘Genocide Olympics’ by Hollywood campaigners.

They accuse China of supplying the Sudanese government with arms to enable it to wage a campaign of violence in Darfur. Stephen Spielberg recently cut his ties with the Olympics over the issue.

Beijing and Khartoum have long had strong political, economic and military ties. Because of this strong relationship, Chinese leaders have traditionally resisted international pressure to use their clout to bring peace to Darfur, where there is conflict between government-backed militias and rebels.

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Post tags: Africa, al-Bashir, Darfur, genocide, Human Rights, Khartoum, Olympics, Sudan
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