The Human Rights group Amnesty International accused China and Russia of breaching the embargo which has been imposed to halt sales of weapons to Sudan, where janjaweed militants are engaged in a campaign of brutality against innocent people. Amnesty said it was “deeply dismayed” by the flow of arms to these terrorists and that the UN’s efforts are being undermined by Russia and China. The Russian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, claiming that Russian “military and technical cooperation with other nations is in line with international rules.” Amnesty International was particularly concerned about the sale of helicopter gun ships, which can cause devastating results when employed against unarmed civilians. There are at least two million homeless people in Darfur, and over 200,000 have been killed by forces that the Sudan government has supplied with guns and ammunition.
Information from the Moscow Times
Russia increasingly has become a world-wide arms merchant engaged in competition with the major arms distributor – the United States of America. They argue their sale of arms is no better nor worse than that of America. China is mainly concerned about getting oil from the Sudan and will do anything to ensure continuation of that oil supply. One day when the world eliminates oil as the main source of energy we will finally get rid of petty tyrants who use oil as a weapon to maintain power.
