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Dear All,
China is celebrating and making history by hosting World's precious Olympic that would be concluded next weekend. However, we must not forget millions around the would who are suffering due to Chinese arms along with diplomatic and economic support to brutal regimes. Please see a small collection of reports below on how China is selling arms to right abusers and fueling human sufferings around the world: Burma, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and North Korea.
Obviously, the suffering of the 50 million plus people in Burma is an outstanding example of abuse fueled by Chinese arms. Peace and freedom that people have been longing for 46 years can not be restored in Burma unless China reverses its irresponsible policies. China must act responsibly and help the people of Burma, not the dictators there -- no more China's military, economic and diplomatic backing to the dictators.
Therefore, help us highlight the China's role and irresponsible
policies in enabling the Burma's brutal dictatorship by joining a protest rally
on the Eve of Olympic Closing at the Chinese Consulate from 2-4 pm on
Saturday August 23 at 450 Laguna St, San Francisco. Among others, an exhibit
on Beijing Olympic through the eye of Local Burmese Artists on behalf of
silenced Burmese people under the Burmese regime will be presented (For
more information, please visit:
www.badasf.org.)
Meantime, please join daily actions by Bay Area Tibetans during the Olympic.
Their schedule can be viewed here:
http://www.sfteamtibet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=48&Itemid=49.
Burma needs you, and any effort counts. Please join us!
Towards free Burma!
Nyunt Than
510 220 1323
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Geopolitical strategies, arms transfers, solutions to military logistics
problems and communication bases, and Burma as a political and military ally are
all important factors in Chinese policy toward Burma. Economic relations are
increasingly important, but in volume their importance to China lags behind that
of other ASEAN states of similar size. (This was from an 2004 Report by
;
but the Trade has exploded since.)
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1.
China continues to supply Burma with military equipment
2. Buyers line up for China's arms
3. Report:
China selling arms to rights abusers
4. Arms Sales and other Support to Abusive Regimes: Sudan, Burma, Zimbabwe, Sri
Lanka, North Korea
5. Why China Blocks Sanctions on Iran, Sudan, Burma
6. HRW: Burma: Security Council Should Impose Arms Embargo
(Weapons Sales by India, China and Russia Fuel Abuses, Strengthen
Military Rule )
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Buyers line up for China's arms
By Tim Luard
China may have lost its reputation for making low-cost goods, but when it comes to weapons, there is no doubt which end of the market its sights are still set on.
Amnesty says China's arms exports fuel conflicts
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Military specialists contacted by the BBC News website have confirmed the main findings of a report issued this week by Amnesty International, which said Chinese arms sales were fuelling conflicts and human rights abuses in countries such as Sudan and Burma.
China has been the Burmese military government's main supplier of weapons - including artillery, trucks, logistical support and communications equipment - ever since the 1990s, according to Tim Huxley, an Asia specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"Without Chinese arms supplies, the Burmese army would find it impossible to operate," he said.
China has also become a major, and perhaps the largest, supplier of weapons to Sudan, where its sales include fighter aircraft and helicopters, according to analysts.
The key question in Sudan, they say, is to what extent alleged war crimes in Darfur are dependent on these supplies.
China is one of Sudan's major sources of weapons
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While the US maintains partial sanctions against Sudan, China has become the country's biggest trading partner, taking most of its oil exports.
Small scale
While there has been much debate on China's alleged transfer of nuclear or long-range missile technology to countries like Iran, North Korea and Pakistan, little attention has been paid to its routine export of conventional weapons and small arms.
Before it started introducing capitalist-style economic reforms in 1978, China gave arms as free military aid to governments and revolutionary groups seen as supporting its interests.
It's the country of choice when you want to buy cheap and
simple weapons - like Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades
and artillery shells
Paul Beaver,
defence analyst |
As its new-found economic might has helped extend its reach and influence, arms sales have become an integral part of China's trade links in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to Amnesty's report.
Some might say this is all part of being a successful capitalist country. China is already flooding the world with its goods of all kinds, so why not arms too?
Many also point out that Chinese arms exports are tiny compared with those of the United States. They are also smaller than those of Russia, France or Britain.
And the value of Chinese arms sales has in fact shrunk in the past 20 years from $2bn a year to about $1bn, mainly due to Russian competition and the poor performance of Chinese weapons in the Iran-Iraq and Gulf Wars in the 1980s and 90s.
'Cheap and simple'
Today, while Western nations tend to sell integrated weapons systems, China produces the kind of weapons they do not make any more, says Paul Beaver, a London-based defence analyst.
"It's the country of choice when you want to buy cheap and simple weapons - like Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery shells.
"China's export policy is that it will supply any country and any sovereign government. The problem is that some have arms embargoes on them," he said.
The Nepalese security forces have been accused of rights
violations
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China, like other countries, does have a policy on export controls, but this is usually whatever is in the interests of the government, said Beaver.
While Chinese handguns and security devices such as electric batons are sold in many parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia on a purely commercial basis, China is also known to supply arms at "friendship prices".
It is especially interested in selling to countries with energy supplies. But there are often other strategic factors involved - as in Nepal and Burma, where China is competing for influence with India.
Derek Mitchell of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington says China has used arms sales not only to open new markets and extract natural resources, but also to help provide capital to its defence industry at a time when the military was being forced to give up its own commercial activities.
China's other main aim, he says, is "to demonstrate its credential as a friend of nations in the developing world in ways that can bear fruit in international institutions such as the UN, and that can be leveraged against US power globally".
Government-controlled
He shares Amnesty's view that China often ignores the impact its arms sales can have on the internal affairs of troubled states.
In Nepal, for example, a deal to supply nearly 25,000 Chinese rifles and 18,000 grenades came at a time when the security forces were involved in suppressing thousands of civilian demonstrators. Sometimes China has even provided assistance to both sides in a conflict, as with Eritrea and Ethiopia, added Mitchell.
He dismissed suggestions that the blame lies with Chinese arms companies acting independently.
"One must hold the government responsible because all arms merchants and weapons dealers in China are government-controlled," he said.
There are few multilateral controls on conventional weapons and China does not operate under the same restraints as most democratic countries, where arms deals tend to be much more transparent and subject to public scrutiny, say analysts.
China's official news agency carried a denial of Amnesty's charges. Chinese specialists contacted by the BBC for this article declined to comment. One simply said he wanted "no connection" with Amnesty International.
But China is keen to be viewed as a responsible world power. And while the US
and other governments are concerned about its rising military spending, rights
activists are hoping it will soon move to the higher, more strictly monitored
end of the arms market - just as it is already doing in other areas, from
clothing to computers.
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Report: China selling arms to rights abusers
RAW STORY
Published: Thursday June 8, 2006
China is quickly becoming one of the world’s largest, most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters, according to a new report issued today by Amnesty International. And Cummins Inc., a manufacturer of diesel engines and related technologies based in Columbus, Ind., may not be helping the situation.
China: Sustaining Conflict and Human Rights Abuses documents how Chinese weapons have helped sustain brutal conflicts, criminal violence and other grave human rights violations in countries such as Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar and South Africa. It also reveals the possible involvement of Western companies in the manufacture of some of this military equipment. According to the report, more than 200 Chinese military trucks--typically fitted with Cummins diesel engines--were shipped to Sudan in August 2005. According to Amnesty International and other human rights monitors, military trucks were used throughout the massacres in 2004 to transport both Sudanese military and Janjawid militia personnel, and in some cases to deliver people for extrajudicial execution.
"Amnesty International calls on Cummins Inc. to determine whether its engines have been fitted into Chinese military trucks and sent to Sudan and Myanmar," said Amnesty International USA Executive Director Larry Cox. "U.S. companies must ensure they are not complicit in human rights violations facilitated by Chinese military equipment."
According to a U.N. investigation in August 2005, 212 Chinese military trucks model EQ2100E6D had been supplied to Sudan. Hubei Dong Feng Motor Industry Import & Export Co., the company that exports these military trucks, has reported that this same model is powered by a Cummins diesel engine.
Amnesty International is also concerned by regular Chinese military shipments to Myanmar, including the supply in August 2005 of 400 military trucks to the Burmese army despite its involvement in the torture, killing and forced eviction of hundreds of thousands of civilians. AI is also concerned that military trucks sent to Myanmar may be fitted with U.S. engines, although, unlike the case of Sudan, it is unclear what specific truck models were shipped to the country.
China’s arms exports, estimated to be in excess of $2 billion per year, often involve the exchange of weapons for raw materials to fuel the country’s rapid economic growth. But it is a trade shrouded in secrecy; Beijing does not publish any information about arms transfers abroad and hasn’t submitted any data to the U.N. Register on Conventional Arms in the last eight years.
"China has used the phrase 'cautious and responsible' to describe its arms export licensing, however its record of trading arms in conflict-ridden countries like Sudan and Myanmar show their actions are anything but," said Colby Goodman, Advocacy Associate on AIUSA’s Control Arms Campaign. "China should join other major exporting powers and agree to multilateral agreements to prohibit arms exports to places where they'll likely be used for grave human rights violations."
In addition to information about Chinese arms sales to Myanmar and Sudan, the report details:
•Chinese military exports to Nepal in 2005 and early 2006, including a deal to supply nearly 25,000 Chinese-made rifles and 18,000 grenades to Nepalese security forces, who were at the time involved in the brutal repression of thousands of civilian demonstrators; and •An increasingly illicit trade in Chinese-made Norinco pistols in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and particularly South Africa, where they are commonly used for robbery, rape and other crimes.
Amnesty International is calling on China to report annually and publicly on all arms export licenses and deliveries and to support strict export guidelines on the international transfer of arms at an upcoming review conference on the program of action to combat the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons from June 26 to July 7. Just this week, AI members in Hong Kong launched a campaign to encourage their government to become more responsible arms exporters.
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http://www.stoparmstosudan.org/pages.asp?id=23
The governments of these four countries, among the world's most repressive, are responsible for mass atrocity crimes against their people. They are routinely criticized and marginalized by the international community for their atrocious patterns of abuse.
Yet China maintains close ties to these regimes, insisting that their human rights abuses are “internal affairs.”
China continues to sell arms to these states, even when those arms are used by state forces in carrying out mass atrocities.
China also continues to make new investments in these countries that benefit the ruling elite far more than the general population.
What's more, China shields its trading partners from international pressure, and refuses to use the full extent of its own influence to curb their abuses.
To truly be seen as a responsible world power, China must reverse its actions and policies that support abusive regimes.
China should:
Click here to join Human Rights First in telling China to Stop Arms Sales to Sudan
Click here to download a pdf guide to China and Mass Atrocities worldwide
Burmese refugee camp, Thai-Burma Border (HRF)
Country: Burma
Regime: State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Accused of:
China's role:
Major arms supplier -
Largest economic partner -
Diplomatic ally -
China's interest: Natural resources; strategic location (on the Bay of Bengal)
A member of the
government-supported militia accused of mass murder, rape and destruction in
Darfur sales to China (HRF)
Country: Sudan
Regime: National Congress Party (NCP) under Omar al Bashir
Accused of:
China's role:
Major arms supplier -
Largest economic partner -
Diplomatic ally -
China's interest: Natural resources
A child sitting in rubble left by the destruction of his home during
Operation Murambatsvina (Sokwanele)
Country: Zimbabwe
Regime: ZANU/PF under Robert Mugabe
Accused of:
China's role:
Major arms supplier -
Largest economic partner -
Diplomatic ally -
China's interest: Natural resources
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Hu Jintao of China in Sri
Lanka in 2007 (Columbo Page)
Country: Sri Lanka
Regime: Democratic Republic under President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Accused of:
China's role:
Major arms supplier -
Economic partner-
Diplomatic ally -
China's interest: Natural resources, strategic location (on the Indian Ocean)
Map of North Korean Gulags (HRNK)
Country: North Korea
Regime: Dictatorship under Kim Jong Il
Accused of:
China's role:
Largest economic partner-
Diplomatic ally -
China's interest: Natural resources, fear of the collapse of a neighboring state
When western firms shy away from investing in countries where mass atrocities are occurring, it's not purely out of concern for human rights. These countries are highly unstable investing environments, and ventures there by Chinese state-owned firms show the extraordinary level of risk they are willing to take in the pursuit of natural resources.
Nowhere is this illustrated more clearly than in Somalia. Chinese firms have entered into agreements for oil exploration in two regions of Somalia, one of the world's most fragile states. The Somaliland and Puntland regions have been more secure than the rest of Somalia in recent years, but their future is far from certain and the region as a whole remains wracked by violence. As if to prove the point, in January 2008, Islamic insurgents bombed two Ethiopian restaurants in the port of Bosasso in Puntland, killing 20 people. What's more, Somalia does not yet have a national oil law, so Chinese investments at this point in time may be subject to later revision under new law
It is unlikely that Somalia will see stability any time soon, therefore China's oil development may prove at best rash and at worst, a potent new addition to an already volatile mix of partnerships with governments committing mass atrocities.
Country: Somalia
Regime: Transitional Federal Government under President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed
Accused of:
China's role:
Economic partner -
China's interest: Natural resources
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http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/gensanc/2006/0612china.htm
The People's Republic of China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and one of the world's prolific arms producers, continues to remain a major stumbling block to U.S. efforts to impose economic and military sanctions on three countries: Sudan, Burma (Myanmar) and Iran.
"The reasons are obvious," says a Southeast Asian diplomat who closely monitors the politics in the region. "Just as much as the United States and other Western powers protect their own political and military interests worldwide, so does China." With the threat of its veto power, China has expressed strong reservations over recent U.S. and Western attempts to either penalise or impose sanctions against Sudan, Burma and Iran for various political reasons. But the 15-member Security Council has been unable to take any action against any of the three countries because of opposition from China or Russia -- or both.
And according to a new report released by the London-based Amnesty International (AI), China is a key arms supplier to countries such as Sudan, Burma and Nepal, described as human rights violators. Iran is also a longtime recipient of Chinese weapons, including Shenyang fighter planes, T-59 battle tanks, HY-2 Silkworm surface- to-surface missiles and rocket launchers. China has strong economic interests in both Sudan and Iran which, in turn, are oil suppliers. "China's arms exports, estimated to be in excess of one billion dollars a year often involve the exchange of weapons for raw materials to fuel the country's rapid economic growth," says the AI study.
But it is a trade shrouded in secrecy, the study points out, because Beijing does not publish any information about arms transfers abroad and hasn't submitted any data to the U.N.'s annual Register on Conventional Arms in the last eight years. "As a major arms exporter and a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China should live up to its obligations under international law," says Helen Hughes, Amnesty International's arms control researcher. "China is the only major arms exporting power that has not signed up to any multilateral agreements with criteria to prevent arms exports likely to be used for serious human rights violations," she said in a statement released here.
Frida Berrigan, senior research associate at the New York-based World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Centre, says that China seems to be the largest and most flagrant violator of international norms on arms transfers but it is not a problem one country can hope to solve on its own. "In this globalised world where China's military trucks are powered by U.S. engines and U.S. fighter plans might have components made in Israel or South Korea, arms transfers to countries in conflict or with records of egregious human right abuses cannot be blamed on one country alone," Berrigan told IPS.
The only real solution, she pointed out, is to manufacture fewer arms and sell to fewer nations. "Unfortunately, all signs point toward the trend going in the opposite direction -- towards greater arms proliferation, and more sophisticated tools for waging war and repressing rights," Berrigan added.
According to the AI study, more than 200 Chinese military trucks -- normally fitted with U.S. Cummins diesel engines -- were shipped to Sudan last August, despite a U.S. arms embargo on both countries, and the involvement of similar vehicles in the killing and abduction of civilians in the politically-troubled Darfur. The study, titled "China: Sustaining Conflict and Human Rights Abuses", also cites regular Chinese military shipments to Myanmar, including the supply in August 2005 of 400 military trucks to the Burmese army despite its involvement in the torture, killing and forced eviction of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Chinese military exports to Nepal in 2005 and early 2006, including a deal to supply nearly 25,000 Chinese-made rifles and 18,000 grenades to Nepalese security forces, were also badly timed, according to the AI report, because it was delivered at a time when "Nepal was involved in the brutal repression of thousands of civilian demonstrators."
China is also complicit in an increasingly illicit trade in Chinese-made Norinco pistols in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and particularly South Africa, where they are commonly used for robbery, rape and other crimes. The report also indicates how Chinese weapons have helped sustain brutal conflicts, criminal violence and grave human rights violations in countries such as Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar and South Africa. But it also reveals the possible involvement of Western companies in the manufacture of some of these weapons.
"China describes its approach to arms export licensing as 'cautious and responsible', yet the reality couldn't be further from the truth," said Hughes of Amnesty International. "They must introduce effective laws and regulations banning all arms transfers that could be used for serious human rights violations or breaches in international humanitarian law," she added. Hughes said that Amnesty International is also calling on China to report annually and publicly on all arms export licences and deliveries and to support a tough, comprehensive and enforceable international arms trade treaty.
Ann-Louise Colgan, director for policy analysis and communications at Washington-based Africa Action, says that both Russia and China continue to oppose sanctions, for their own economic and political interests. "China is the single largest investor in the oil industry in Sudan, and Russia also has interests in continuing to sell weapons and other military equipment to the Khartoum regime," she added.
But neither China nor Russia wishes to antagonise the
Government of Sudan, and neither one wishes to set a precedent for international
intervention (or even punitive action) based on human rights concerns because of
their own internal repression of ethnic communities, Colgan told IPS.
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http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/10/burma17066.htm
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