China defends economic ties to Sudan: ‘development is key to Darfur peace’

A Chinese special envoy described the true cause of conflict in Darfur as internal competition over resources, saying Thursday that activists should not try to shame Beijing into dropping its support for a Sudanese government accused of carrying out genocide.

China has been denounced for not using its economic leverage to apply more pressure on the Sudanese government for peace in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million are homeless. Activists have attempted to shame China by saying its inaction makes it unworthy as host of the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics.
“The heart of the problems in Darfur is lack of development … Desertification has spread quickly and this makes the people in the area fight over the limited resources, leading to conflict and bloodshed,” Liu Guijin, China’s special envoy to the region, said in a question-and-answer interview posted on government Web site http://www.china.com.cn.

“People shouldn’t just pay attention to the political process and peacekeeping, but also the development and reconstruction of the area,” Liu said. “Otherwise, once the peacekeepers pull out and the political treaties are signed, the Darfur region will continue to be poor and people will still fight for resources.”

Liu repeated previous statements from Beijing officials that groups should not try to “politicize” the Olympics, which China wants to use to show that it is ready to join the ranks of the world’s top countries.

Energy-hungry China buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil output and has refineries, a pipeline and joint exploration projects in the east African country. Beijing also sells weapons to the Khartoum regime, which is accused of unleashing janjaweed militias on ethnic African rebels.

Star Tribune