China is subsidizing genocide in Sudan

Peter Brooks:

THE death, destruction and human misery in Sudan's western region of Darfur may now be worse than at any time since the conflict started four years ago - if that's possible.

As the world struggles to end the bloodshed in Darfur, one of the biggest stumbling blocks is China's support of Sudanese President Omar al Bashir's Islamist government.

Beijing runs interference for Sudan's repressive regime, whose armed forces and Arab-Muslim Janjaweed militias are responsible for more than 200,000 deaths and for creating 2 million refugees.

If Beijing doesn't use its influence to curb Khartoum's "ethnic cleansing" of Darfur's African Muslims, there may be little others, including the United Nations, can do to end what many are calling the 21st century's first genocide.

So what's China's interest in far-off Sudan? One word: oil.

Since 2005, Beijing has been the world's No. 2 energy consumer and importer of foreign oil. China now buys 70 percent of Sudan's liquid gold, accounting for 10 percent of its oil imports.

Over the last decade, Beijing's energy firms have invested between $3 billion and $10 billion in the Sudanese energy sector, stuffing at least $250 million a year into Khartoum's pockets.

To protect its investment, Beijing provides diplomatic cover for Khartoum at the U.N. Security Council, where it has veto power - preventing the likes of Washington and London from passing tougher, punitive economic sanctions that might interfere with Chinese energy investments.

China is also dragging its feet on the deployment of a more robust U.N. peacekeeping force to Darfur - which Sudan opposes - to augment the 7,000 (largely ineffective) African Union troops there.

To further ingratiate itself to the repressive Bashir regime, China cancelled over $100 million in Sudanese loan debt. It's also building roads, bridges, an oil refinery and a hydroelectric dam - not to mention government offices and a new $20 million presidential palace.

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The Chicoms have always been comfortable with genocide. Mao was responsible for millions of deaths, mostly on the cheap with starvation. He even out did Stalin who outdid Hitler when it came to genocide. They have become the stick in the gears of multilateralisms machinery and the protector of evil.