Ok, lets take a quick look at what is really going on within the UN Security Council. Members came to yet another stalemate earlier today on what to do about stopping the genocide in Darfur Sudan. This follows on weeks of inaction by the council--time that the Sudanese government has used to close its borders, lock down its hold on Darfur, and strengthen its military.
British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who along with Germany and France, wants an immediate arms embargo on Sudan, said the council was not yet considering sanctions. Diplomats said Russia, China, Pakistan and others were opposed to even a weapons embargo.
Russia, weapons
Now, here is a little context. Russia opposes an arms embargo because it is a major arms seller to Sudan. Here is a story to be published in tomorrow's Moscow times (it is after midnight in Moscow, so the morning paper stories are appearing online now--all hail RSS!):
In a rare news conference Wednesday, the Sudanese ambassador to Moscow said his country was "very satisfied" with Russia for filling a 12-jet order five months ahead of schedule.The ambassador, Chol Deng Alak, dismissed concerns the new MiGs would be used to attack indigenous black tribes, saying they were bought to prevent Sudan from being "an easy target" for other nations.
"We are very satisfied with the delivery. We need these jets to safeguard our economic interests," Alak said.
But Amnesty International researchers say they had received testimonies from civilians in Sudan who claimed to have been bombed by Russian-made MiGs and Ukrainian Antonov general-use transport craft operated by the Sudanese air force.
China, oil
China has oil interests in Sudan, that are complementary to Russia's arms dealing. As US Senator Sam Brownback put it,
"They [the Chinese] continue to drill for and export the oil," said Senator Brownback. "That continues to take place, and they are funding the military build-up by the [Sudanese] government, because the helicopters and the gun ships, and it appears also, the arming of the Janjaweed. They're armed, the Janjaweed are. They're given satellite phones, which is a highly unusual and expensive thing, as well. Those monies only seem to be coming from the oil revenues."More than 70 percent of Sudan's total export earnings come from oil sales abroad. China has a 40 percent stake in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, the main international consortium extracting oil from Sudan. Other large stakeholders include Malaysia's Petronas and India's national oil company, ONGC Videsh.
For China, Sudan is a beachhead for oil exploration and extraction throughout Africa.
Ms. Jaffe says Sudan is important to China, not for the amount of Sudanese oil that goes there, but because Sudan is the base for Chinese oil operations elsewhere in Africa."They have the most personnel there. They have the most money invested there. They have the highest production, ongoing production there," she said. "They also have what's called their service companies, which are companies that provide drilling support and surface facilities, pipeline construction and so forth. They're all operated out of these companies in Sudan."
UN, question
Now here is a question to ponder. Why don't Russia and China use their strategic leaverage with the regime in Khartoum to convince it to open up communication and travel, respect human rights and stop its genocidal campaign in Darfur? Why instead do Russia and China use their seats on the UN Security Council to support and protect the Sudanese government?
Oh, right, the Russians and the Chinese differ from us in their perspective on human rights and state control of people.
As a friend said when I complained about Sudan's membership on the UN Human Rights Commission, "Well, it is not that Sudan doesn't believe in discussing human rights, they just represent a different view of what the role of rights ought to be. They represent the viewpoint that human rights can and should be abused in the service of political power. This, for better or worse, is part of the diversity of values held by members of the UN."
Perhaps we need something like the UN that is based on accepting certain values. World Trade Organization membership is conditioned upon adopting particular economic values. We could have a world organizatin conditioned upon adopting specific human values and rights. You would only be able to be a member if you accepted certain universals.
Actually, the UN is based on a set of universal values. We collectively haven't figured out how to respect and enforce them among members.
It is not something new to many of sudanese who are suffer under the sudanses government. we know that we suffer because of the main power UN who use their security membership for the purpose of business but not to protect human right. for example was drilling since while it was rule out that no country would buy oil from sudan becase government is using oil for weapon.Now you have seen Russia is selling jet fighter to sudanses government to use it a gainst civilian and that why the government drage peace every where in southern sudan and darfur because they get support from some member of security counsel.
Posted by: peter Jok | July 21, 2004 at 05:32 PM