China has appointed a seasoned diplomat as its special Africa envoy, with a brief to focus on Darfur, the government said on Thursday, amid growing criticism of Beijing’s role in Sudan.
”The Chinese government has decided to name Ambassador Liu Guijin as a special representative for African affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing.
”The Darfur issue raises a lot of concerns in the international community. The first task of the special representative will focus on the Darfur issue,” she said.
The announcement came after more than 100 United States lawmakers signed a strongly worded letter calling on China’s President Hu Jintao to take immediate action to stop bloodshed in Darfur.
”The international community is stepping up to its responsibilities, but unless China does its part to ensure that the government of Sudan accepts the best and most reasonable path to peace, history will judge your government as having bankrolled a genocide,” the letter to Hu read.
Jiang did not respond directly to questions about the letter, but announced that Beijing would send a team of 275 engineers to join a United Nations-led peacekeeping force in violence-torn Darfur.
”On the Darfur issue, China and the US have the same goal — to resolve the issue by political means — so we are ready to make joint efforts with the international community, including the US, to promote a solution for Darfur,” she said.
She called Liu, a former ambassador to South Africa and Zimbabwe, ”an experienced diplomat [who] knows African affairs well”.
The Darfur conflict has caused 200 000 deaths and led to two million people being displaced, according to the United Nations. Sudan contests the figures, saying that only 9 000 have died.
China has been criticised for not using its clout as a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and a top investor in Sudan to force Khartoum to end the violence in Darfur, where ethnic tensions erupted into a revolt in 2003.
China is also the leading customer for Sudanese oil and a key supplier of military arms and equipment to Sudan.
Beijing is in the midst of stepping up its relations with many African nations as part of efforts to supply its booming economy with energy and other resources.
On Tuesday, China dismissed a claim by human rights group Amnesty International that it was supplying arms to Sudan and to rebel forces in Darfur in violation of a UN embargo.
Citing 2005 data, Amnesty said Sudan imported millions of dollars of military equipment from China.
It said the Chinese company AviChina Industry and Technology ”recently delivered six K-8S military training/attack aircraft to the Sudanese Air Force and a further six will follow soon”.
”Amnesty International is concerned that the Sudan Air Force has transferred these jet bombers to Darfur without authority from the UN sanctions committee,” the report said.
”The Chinese government takes a responsible attitude and a strict management policy on arms exports,” Jiang said in a response to the Amnesty report.
”This is a groundless accusation.” — AFP
