Six newer stories that are related to the earlier batch (updated originally to add the second, newer one from the UK's "Times"; updated further to add the one from the AP, which is an updated version of the one in the earlier batch [despite the different dateline]):
From VOA...
Rights group Amnesty International has accused China and Russia of breaching a United Nations arms embargo by letting weapons into Sudan that were then used in the Darfur region.
An Amnesty report published [on] Tuesday expresses dismay that two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council were allowing weapons to flow into Sudan.
Russia and China have dismissed the allegation.
Amnesty International urged the U.N. to strengthen the existing arms embargo on Darfur.
The Amnesty report also accuses the Sudanese air force of operating airplanes and helicopters painted white, to resemble U.N. aircraft. A U.N. report that was leaked to the media last month found that Sudan was using disguised airplanes to carry out bombing raids in Darfur. Sudan rejected the charge.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur since rebels began an uprising against Sudan's central government in early 2003.
From the CBC...
Human-rights group Amnesty International said [on] Tuesday [that] it believes that Russia and China are supplying weapons to Sudan in violation of a United Nations arms embargo.
Amnesty International, in a new report on Sudan, said it is "deeply dismayed" that the weapons are being diverted for use in Sudan's troubled Darfur region and neighbouring Chad.
The Arab militia known as the Janjaweed is using the imported weapons, it added.
"States supplying weapons, munitions and other military equipment to Sudan, and to other parties to the conflict, know, or at least should know, that these arms are often used to commit serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Darfur and now in eastern Chad," the report reads.
"Governments that ratify international human-rights treaties have a particular obligation to ensure that such treaties are upheld, and that the human rights of the population living within the state are protected," it says in its conclusion.
China rejected the report on Tuesday, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu saying [that] the accusations were "groundless." She said [that] its exports to Sudan were limited and small in scale.
The United Nations estimates [that] more than 200,000 people have died through killings, illness and starvation since the conflict began four years ago between militias and rebel groups in Darfur.
More than two million people have been forced to flee their homes. Those in refugee camps complain that they are still threatened by the government-backed Janjaweed. There are 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, but they have been unable to stop the violence.
Brian Wood, one of the authors of the report, called on Russia and China to comply with the UN embargo to protect civilians in Darfur.
"We are talking about the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet," Wood told CBC News on Monday.
"Both the governments of the People's Republic of China and [of] the Russian Federation need to rein in all of their arms supplies and munitions supplies to Sudan, as part of a package of measures needed to help get the human rights of people of Darfur back again."
The report said [that] Sudan, according to its latest available trade figures, imported at least $24 million in arms, ammunition, parts and aircraft equipment, helicopters and airplanes from China in 2005, and at least $21 million in aircraft, spare parts and helicopters from Russia in 2005.
It said [that] Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Belarus have also been supplying arms to Sudan.
Larger implications for UN
Amnesty said in the report that China and Russia are well aware of how their weapons are being used in Sudan, and the ongoing flow of weapons has larger implications for the UN.
"The authority of the Security Council itself is being greatly undermined as the Sudanese authorities and armed groups in Darfur are allowed to act with such obvious impunity before the eyes of the world, importing and diverting arms to commit flagrant violations of international law," Amnesty said.
In July 2004, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on non-governmental groups in Darfur. In March 2005, that embargo was extended all parties in the conflict.
Amnesty said [that] the embargo is "somewhat vaguely formulated" and lacks a mechanism by which the UN can monitor, verify and publicly report on compliance, which means [that] some states are able to violate it with impunity.
It called the UN to strengthen the embargo.
By Sam Knight of the UK's "Times"...
China denied flouting the UN arms embargo in Darfur today [Tuesday], instead saying [that] it was sending military engineers to help the peacekeeping mission in the region.
Beijing reacted angrily to a detailed report by Amnesty International this morning, which accused Russia and China, both UN Security Council members, of supplying millions of dollars of weapons and aircraft which have been used by the Sudanese Government to bomb villages in Darfur.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry described the allegations as "groundless". A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry also rejected the charges.
The Amnesty report said that Sudan had imported more than $70 million (£35 million) in arms, parts and aircraft from China in 2005, and more than $30 million (£15 million) in aircraft and helicopters from Russia in the same year, according to data from Khartoum. Weapons from both countries have been implicated in raids carried out by the Sudanese Government and militias on civilians, according to Amnesty.
“The authority of the Security Council itself is being greatly undermined, as the Sudanese authorities and armed groups in Darfur are allowed to act with such obvious impunity before the eyes of the world, importing and diverting arms to commit flagrant violations of international law,” the report said.
The UN Security Council first approved an arms embargo for Darfur in 2004 but excluded the Sudanese Government, an omission that was rectified in March 2005. The blockade has always proved difficult to monitor and even harder to enforce, with countries such as Russia, China and Belarus all maintaining active military co-operation agreements with Khartoum.
The lawlessness of Darfur, where 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million more have been forced from their homes by ethnic fighting since 2003, was further illustrated last month by a confidential UN report that found that the Sudanese Armed Forces had painted a Russian-made aircraft in the white livery of the UN and used it to bomb civilians.
The Amnesty report today carried more allegations that the Sudanese Government was ferrying weapons and aircraft to Darfur, where they were being used to support raids by the janjawid, heavily armed militias accused of perpetrating ethnic cleansing against the region's black farming communities.
The report said that China had delivered flight simulators and "six K-8 military training/attack aircraft to the Sudanese Air Force and [that] a further six will follow soon". The jets are being used to train pilots to fly the also Chinese-made A-5 "Fantan" fighter-bombers that have been seen on runways in Darfur.
Russia was accused of supplying parts and ammunition to maintain Sudan's fleet of Russian-made Antonov jets and Mi-24 attack helicopters, which have been implicated by witnesses in dozens of attacks against villages in the region. An Antonov aircraft has been accused of bombing Darfur refugee camps over the border in Chad.
"It is a matter of international concern that for several years the Sudan Air Force has used this type of attack helicopter for operations during Janjawid indiscriminate attacks on villages in [...] Darfur," the report said of the attack helicopters.
"For example, on 15 November 2006, soldiers of the Sudanese armed forces and armed militia, supported by helicopter gunships, attacked several villages in the Birmaza area, killing at least three civilians, torching dozens of houses and destroying four relief halls of an international non-governmental organization."
Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, rejected the allegations against Beijing today. “The Chinese government takes a responsible attitude and a strict management policy on arms exports," she said. “This is a groundless accusation."
The second stage, which calls for the delivery of "heavy support" in the form of 3,500 UN personnel and equipment to assist the African Union's beleaguered force in the region, was approved last month. Without naming Amnesty, Ms Jiang also accused "some organisations and individuals" of using the 2008 Beijing Olympics to bring unfair human-rights allegations against China.
"This violates the Olympic spirit and is disturbing and damaging the active Olympic Games preparatory work of the Chinese government and people. This kind of activity is unwise," she said.
By David Blair of the UK's "Telegraph"...
Russia and China have broken a United Nations arms embargo by supplying Sudan with attack helicopters, bombers and other weapons for use against civilians in Darfur, Amnesty International has said.
Chinese strike aircraft and Russian helicopter gunships have been photographed at three airports in Darfur.
Their presence violates UN Resolution 1591, which banned Sudan from transferring any weaponry to Darfur without the Security Council's official permission.
Both Russia and China approved the passage of this Resolution in March 2005. But Amnesty's new report finds that both countries went on to breach the very arms embargo [that] they were party to imposing.
China sold arms and ammunition worth Pounds 12 million to Sudan in 2005, along with spare parts worth Pounds 30 million which could have been used to keep military aircraft airborne. In the same year, Russia sold helicopter gunships worth almost Pounds 7 million to the Khartoum regime.
Belarus, a close ally of Russia, exported 32 heavy artillery guns and nine armoured fighting vehicles.
China also sold six K-8 training aircraft to Sudan's air force.
Another six of these jet planes, which could be used for ground attack missions, are due to be delivered soon.
Sudan has carried out numerous air strikes against civilian targets in Darfur, in breach of a no-fly agreement signed in 2004.
Four years of civil war between the Arab-dominated regime and black African rebels have forced at least two million people to flee their homes and [have] claimed about 300,000 lives, either from violence, starvation or disease.
Russia and China “cannot have been unaware of reports of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law by the Sudanese security forces,” says the report.
“But they have nevertheless continued to allow military equipment to be sent to Sudan.” Amnesty adds that both countries “have been or should have been aware” that “several types of military equipment, including aircraft, have been deployed by the Sudanese armed forces for direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks in Darfur”.
At present, Sudan's air force is believed to deploy six Russian MI-24 attack helicopters in Darfur. It also makes use of three Chinese-made Fantan A5 strike aircraft.
In addition, Sudan's air force routinely employs Antonov-26 transport aircraft – all made in Russia – as heavy bombers.
At least one of these planes has been sprayed with white paint and given fake “UN” markings in order to disguise it as a UN aircraft.
Moreover, small arms supplied by Russia and China have been passed on to the notorious “Janjaweed” militia, an armed group raised by Khartoum to combat Darfur's rebels.
These gunmen have been turned loose on black African tribes and given carte blanche to loot and murder.
Weapons supplied by Russia and China have even found their way into the hands of rebel groups in neighbouring Chad.
The war in Darfur has spread over the border into eastern Chad, where the Khartoum regime is arming rebels fighting against the neighbouring government.
Sudan also operates its own factories producing light weapons and a variant of the Russian T-55 tank.
These facilities are believed to have been established with technical help from Russia or China. But Russia officially denied breaching the arms embargo on Darfur and said that it “unswervingly” enforces UN Resolutions.
Sudan's ambassador to the UN, Abdel Mahmood Haleem, called Amnesty's report “baseless and false” and denied that any of the aircraft cited were being employed in the civil war.
“We are moving these military assets to their respective places. We are not using these aircraft for any military function in Darfur,” he said.
Britain and America are preparing a new Resolution which would impose more sanctions on President Omar al-Bashir's regime, if it fails to allow a peacekeeping force into Darfur.
This contingent would be formed jointly by the UN and the African Union, an alliance of all 53 countries on the continent.
Unless there is progress, this measure is likely to be tabled before the Security Council next week, said a British official.
London believes that Mr Bashir is sensitive to outside pressure and officials say that further sanctions targeting his regime's key figures and commercial interests may have an effect.
From the AP...
China and Russia, two of Sudan's trade allies, were accused by a top human-rights group of supplying weapons to Khartoum that were used to fuel deadly violence in Darfur. The allegations, a violation of a U.N. arms embargo, come as Moscow and China have balked at U.S. and British efforts to put new pressure on Sudan.
China and Russia quickly rejected Amnesty International's allegations [on] Tuesday that they supplied weapons and equipment that were used in Darfur. Khartoum called the report false.
"The report is totally incorrect. ... It is the sort of claim that has no material proof," Sudanese government spokesman Bakri Mulah told The Associated Press from Khartoum.
Weapons supplied to Sudan, the report claimed, were used to carry out attacks on civilians in both Darfur and neighboring Chad. The U.N. Security Council embargo against supplying these weapons was extended in 2005 to involve all parties in the conflict to include the government.
The report said [that] "the bulk" of the arms were transferred from China and Russia, with Sudan importing US$83 million (€61.22 million) in arms from Beijing and US$34.7 million (€25.59 million) in military equipment from Moscow in 2005, the latest available figures. It did not provide specific up-to-date figures.
"The irresponsible transfer of arms to Sudan and its neighbors [is] a significant factor in the massive human-rights catastrophe in Darfur, and its spread into eastern Chad," London-based Amnesty said in a statement.
The rights group said [that] China and Russia — two of the five permanent Security Council members — should have been aware that their military equipment was "deployed by the Sudanese armed forces and militia for direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks in Darfur."
At least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes since 2003, when ethnic-African rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated central government.
Khartoum is accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic tribes and unleashing militias known as the janjaweed — a charge [that] the government denies. The violence has now spilled into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic.
Amnesty said [that] it was particularly concerned about Russian Mi-24 helicopter gunships acquired by the Sudan Air Force that were allegedly being used to launch attacks in Darfur.
A photo, allegedly from March, of three Chinese "Fantan" fighter jets on the tarmac of an airport in Nyala, the capital of the southern Darfur region, was also in the report. It said [that] the aircraft were "specifically designed to be used for ground-attack operations."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said [that] Beijing does not sell arms to regions under U.N. embargo. She said [that] China's weapons sales to Africa were made to sovereign nations, and were "very limited and small in scale", but refused to say specifically how much was sold to Sudan.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "no Russian weapons have been shipped to Darfur."
"Russia's military and technical cooperation with other countries is in line with international rules and norms. Russia has fully abided by the provisions of resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, which ban arms shipments to Darfur," the ministry said.
The Amnesty report comes after a U.N. report was leaked last month asserting that Sudan's government was flying attack aircraft, painted white [in order] to resemble U.N. planes, and other military equipment into Darfur, against the embargo. Sudan denied the claims.
Following that report, the U.S. and Britain began leading a push for new sanctions against Sudan, if it continues to refuse to deploy U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.
An ill-equipped and understaffed African Union force is currently patrolling the western Sudan region. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has refused calls for a joint U.N.-AU force, though he recently agreed to let the U.N. send 3,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, backed by six helicopter gunships.
Both Russia and China, which have close trade ties with Sudan, oppose the U.S.-British sanctions proposal. China — which buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports — is facing increasing international pressure to use its influence in Sudan to pressure Khartoum into stopping the violence.
"Nobody has the leverage that the Chinese do — not the Arab League, not the U.S., not the E.U. It's the Chinese; they're the ones," said Eric Reeves, a Sudan expert at Smith College in Massachusetts.
Russia also has commercial ties to Sudan, with [the] bulk being arms sales including a US$1 billion (€0.74 billion) sale of 12 MiG-29 fighters to Sudan, Reeves said.
He said [that] the only way to ensure that the U.N. arms embargo is enforced is to have a U.N. force on the ground.
"You could end the arms movement in Sudan overnight, once the force were deployed, but it's precisely for that reason that Khartoum has refused to accept a U.N. force," he said.
China and Russia were accused yesterday [Tuesday] of breaching international law by supplying Sudan with weapons that were used in the conflict in Darfur.
According to a report by Amnesty International, Chinese and Russian equipment, including bombers and helicopter gunships, have been used this year in attacks by government forces against suspected rebel strongholds.
A United Nations Security Council resolution passed in 2005 banned the supply of weapons to the troubled province. “Amnesty International is deeply dismayed by the fact that certain governments, including two Permanent Members of the Security Council – China and Russia – are allowing ongoing flows of arms to parties to Sudan that are diverted for the conflict in Darfur,” the report said.
Yesterday, Khartoum, Beijing and Moscow all denied the allegations. Bakri Mulah, a Sudanese government spokesman, dimissed the report as “unjustified and unsubstantiated”.
Amnesty claimed that Sudan imported $24 million (£12 million) in Chinese arms and ammunition, and a further $59 million in spare parts and aircraft equipment, in 2005.
It also claimed that Russia sold Khartoum $45 million in military aircraft and spare parts. Russian-made helicopters and bombers were used this year to strike at rebel targets in Darfur. Some were painted white [in order] to make them look like UN aircraft.
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