---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 07:37:08 -0700
From: Debra Williams <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:@u.washington.edu;>
Subject: [AfricaMatters] Re: CHINA'S ARMS SALES TO AFRICA SOURCE OF CASH,
INFLUENCE
----- Original Message -----
From: Freedom Now <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2000 3:07 AM
Subject: CHINA'S ARMS SALES TO AFRICA SOURCE OF CASH, INFLUENCE
> =======================================================================
> IN TODAY'S UPDATE
> =======================================================================
>
> * China's Arms Sales To Africa Source Of Cash, Influence
> * United States Restates Opposition To Sudan Bid At United Nations
> * Uganda Opposes Sudan's UN Security Council Bid, Minister Says
>
>
> ************************************************************************
> CHINA'S ARMS SALES TO AFRICA SOURCE OF CASH, INFLUENCE
>
> By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
> Associated Press Writer
>
> 10/07/2000
> Associated Press Newswires
> Copyright 2000. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
>
> BEIJING (AP) - While China moves to shore up its influence with African
> governments, military relations are one area it
> need not worry about.
>
> As sub-Saharan Africa's top weapons supplier, China has sold jet
> fighters to politically tense Zimbabwe and supplied
> weapons of all types to countries intervening in Congo's civil war.
> Armed Chinese guards have been seen defending the
> building of a pipeline across Sudan against guerrillas fighting the
> Muslim government.
>
> "Chinese weapons are rubbish compared to Western arms, but the rifles
> work and China can compete on price," said Siemon Wezeman with the
> Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms
> sales. And, he added, the sales perhaps "are helping keep conflicts
> alive."
>
> Chinese leaders will host top officials from 44 African countries at a
> three-day Beijing forum opening Tuesday to boost China's standing on
> the continent. The United States, the European Union and Japan all
> stage such confabs, and China wants to wield similar influence while
> preventing defections to rival Taiwan.
>
> China's ties with African states date from the Cold War and military
> contacts have figured prominently from the start. Aid to newly
> independent African states attempted to prop up allies or fight proxy
> wars against ideological foes. To counter both Moscow and Washington,
> Beijing supported rebel movements in Angola and Namibia and sold arms
> to Sudan and Zimbabwe.
>
> These days, military ties are driven mostly by money and China's
> resolve to run a foreign policy defiantly independent of the West.
>
> Africa represents a small but important market for China's military.
> Stripped of its domestic business empire two years ago, the People's
> Liberation Army and related enterprises have seen overall arms exports
> decline sharply due to poor quality, bad service and outdated
> technology.
>
> "In terms of its military-to-military relationships, China has
> increased its visibility and activities in Africa," said Larry Wortzel,
> a former deputy U.S. military attache in Beijing and now at The
> Heritage Foundation in Washington.
>
> Cheap, simple, and readily available, Chinese weapons appeal to African
> militaries with tiny budgets and scant training or maintenance
> facilities. By 1998, China had 22 percent of the sub-Saharan African
> arms market - with sales worth dlrs 600 million from 1995-98 - compared
> to Russia's 18 percent market share, according to the U.S.
> Congressional Research Service.
>
> Recent sales included at least 20 aircraft, ten of them Chinese
> supersonic F-7 jets transferred to Zimbabwe, the Congressional Research
> Service reported. Namibia bought at least four Chinese K-8 ground
> attack jets, according to newspaper reports in the southwest African
> country.
>
> Other sales have involved small arms, communications systems, artillery
> and air defense systems, say experts following the arms trade. China
> also trains African pilots and officers and built an arms plant in
> Uganda that has been linked to rebels in Angola, Kenyan crime mobs and
> Tutsi militants in Rwanda and Congo.
>
> China has defended the military ties as proper. Beijing doesn't sell to
> countries considered "sensitive," at war or in domestic turmoil, Liu
> Guijin, director general of the Foreign Ministry's African Department,
> told reporters at a recent briefing.
> He refused to discuss specific sales.
>
> To support sales, China promotes frequent visits by military leaders
> and pays for the stationing of military attaches from at least nine
> African countries in Beijing, a Western military attache in Beijing
> said. China claims such exchanges strengthen military cooperation.
> Others call that code for arms sales.
>
> "The high-sounding language at meetings between Chinese and African
> defense leaders is really about sales and dispatch of instructors,"
> said the Western military attache, speaking on condition of anonymity.
>
> Nowhere is China's defiance of the West more pointed than in Sudan,
> where China's state petroleum company has invested heavily in oil
> fields and a pipeline. Amid a broad-ranging relationship, China has
> sold Sudan missiles, helicopters, fighters and artillery even while the
> country lies under European Union and U.S. arms embargoes and U.N.
> sanctions.
>
>
> ***********************************************************************
> UNITED STATES RESTATES OPPOSITION TO SUDAN BID AT UNITED NATIONS
>
>
> 10/06/2000
> Associated Press Newswires
> Copyright 2000. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - Rebutting Sudan's claim that it is the consensus
> choice of African nations for a U.N. Security Council seat, the State
> Department said Friday that Mauritius has the backing of 15 countries
> on the continent.
>
> Department spokesman Richard Boucher reaffirmed U.S. support for
> Mauritius in the contest, touting it as a "vibrant democracy" which has
> played a positive role in African regional institutions.
>
> "We believe that Mauritius would make an excellent addition to the
> Security Council," Boucher said.
>
> In contrast, he said Sudan is under U.N. sanctions for supporting
> terrorism and shows "no concern for human rights and the humanitarian
> welfare of their own citizens, nor have they shown any economic or
> political leadership in Africa."
>
> "They've carried out military actions against U.N. efforts, bombing
> U.S. relief airplanes on the ground.
>
> Sudan's government says it has tried to arrive at a peaceful settlement
> in the country's civil war and accuses foreign grass-roots groups
> operating in southern Sudan of providing logistical support to the
> rebels and prolonging the war.
>
> The Security Council will vote on the issue Tuesday.
>
>
>
> ************************************************************************
> UGANDA OPPOSES SUDAN'S UN SECURITY COUNCIL BID, MINISTER SAYS
>
>
> 10/07/2000
> BBC Monitoring
> Source: 'New Vision', Kampala, in English 6 Oct 00/BBC Monitoring/(c)
> BBC
>
> Text of report by Ugandan newspaper 'New Vision' web site on 6th
> October
>
> Uganda has objected to Sudan's bid to represent Eastern Africa at the
> UN Security Council for the next three years, taking over from Namibia,
> reports Alfred Wasike.
>
> The election for the next representative takes place next week at the
> UN headquarters in New York.
>
> "Can you imagine that Sudan is bidding to represent our region in the
> UN Security Council? Sudan is currently under sanctions by the UN for
> terrorism. Sudan has terrorized Uganda for years. We have strongly
> objected to Sudan's bid," the minister for regional cooperation, Amama
> Mbabazi, said yesterday.
>
> "They have been sponsoring terrorism against Uganda by aiding the LRA
> (Lord's Resistance Army) and ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) against our
> people for years. Can you imagine that hundreds of our people have been
> killed by their agents while very many others are still in their
> captivity? How can we support such a country?" Mbabazi asked.
>
> He said, "Can you also imagine that the same Sudan is busy bombing UN
> facilities which are trying to supply food and other relief material in
> it's own country?"
>
> "It is not true that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) has
> formally endorsed Sudan as its candidate. The region has not
> endorsed Sudan at all," Mbabazi insisted.
>
> "We are supporting Mauritius. Our turn will come but for the time being
> we have endorsed Mauritius."
>
> Uganda cut ties with Sudan in April 1995 and has repeatedly accused
> Sudan of bombing her territory.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> =====
>
***************************************************************************
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