China says ready to work with West on Darfur

Thursday 6 March 2008.

March 5, 2008 (PARIS) — China’s special envoy to Darfur said Wednesday Beijing was ready to work with Western powers for a peaceful end to bloodshed in the war-torn region, but remains opposed to sanctions against Khartoum.

"There is no fundamental difference between China and Western countries. China is ready to cooperate sincerely, and is not looking for confrontation with the West" on Darfur, Liu Giujin told reporters in Paris.

As Sudan’s main overseas supporter and a key arms supplier, China has come under growing pressure to use its influence on the east African regime to end the six-year old conflict in the western region.

Liu, who was in Paris after travelling to Darfur and neighbouring Chad late last month, said China shared "the same objective" as Western nations, but that its approach was "not the same".

"China is opposed to the arbitrary use of sanctions and an embargo that only worsens the situation," he said.

Western powers including Britain, France and the United States have backed the idea of sanctions against Khartoum for resisting the full deployment of a joint AU-UN mission to keep the fragile peace in Darfur.

"China wants to exert a positive influence over (the Sudanese government). What we want is for the crisis to be solved as quickly as possible through dialogue and negotiation, not by force," Liu said.

He said foreign states must build a dialogue of equals with the "legitimate" government in Khartoum, "whether or not we approve of it".

"We must talk to it as an equal, as a partner, to create a minimum of trust. We must ask it what approach best suits its interests," he said.

Liu repeated a call for Western powers to use their "important influence over rebel groups" in Darfur, and "speak with a single voice" to bring them back to the negotiating table.

One of the main rebel leaders from Darfur, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, whose Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) spearheaded a 2003 uprising at the start of the current spiral of violence, lives in exile in Paris.

The Darfur conflict, which the United Nations says has claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 people and displaced 2.2 million, has raged since 2003 when rebel groups demanded a greater share of the country’s resources.

Pressure for China to use its influence on Khartoum has mounted ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

Hollywood film-maker Steven Spielberg resigned last month as artistic consultant for the Games over the conflict, which the United States describes as the first genocide of the 21st century.

Nobel Prize winners and Olympic athletes have also written to Chinese President Hu Jintao, asking him to put pressure on Sudan over Darfur.

Liu argued that it was "unfair" to insist on China’s responsibility as arms supplier to Khartoum, saying it was one of seven weapons suppliers to the regime, and accounted for eight percent of its imports.

"In addition, Sudan is Africa’s third arms producer behind Egypt and South Africa, and is self-sufficient in conventional arms and ammunition," Liu said.

"The country will always find a way to obtain arms. It is unfair to accuse China."

(AFP)