The Sudanese government is violating a U.N. arms embargo by moving military equipment—including aircraft painted white to look like U.N. aircraft—into Darfur without permission, an Amnesty International report said Tuesday.
"The authority of the Security Council itself is being greatly undermined as the Sudanese authorities and armed groups in Darfur are allowed to act with such obvious impunity before the eyes of the world, importing and diverting arms to commit flagrant violations of international law," the report says.
The report, which includes photos of Russian- and Chinese-made military planes at airports in Darfur, calls for better monitoring and verification of the embargo.
The embargo was imposed in March 2005 when the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1591 and established a monitoring committee. The Sudanese government needs approval from this committee to move military equipment and supplies into Darfur.
But the government has routinely failed to seek such approval before moving aircraft, weapons and ammunition into Darfur, says the report. These arms have been used to attack civilians as recently as mid-April this year, according to eyewitness testimonies.
On 11 April, according to the report, a group of armed men attacked a market and seven villages in North Darfur. The attackers, said to be members of the government-backed Janjaweed militias, reportedly used 30 vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns and artillery, killing 40 civilians and wounding 25 others.
An estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the four-year conflict many have labeled as genocide. In recent months, attacks by Janjaweed militias, at times accompanied by bombings from the Sudanese Air Force, have continued in Darfur and spread across the border into neighboring Chad.
White Russian Planes
The report makes another serious allegation: the use of white aircraft in Darfur by the Sudanese government, apparently to carry out military missions.
According to eyewitness testimony, in early March 2007, an all-white Antonov-26 with a Sudanese Air Force registration number was spotted at El Fasher "parked near an assortment of bombs." Others reported seeing all white Air Force helicopters at Nyala Airport between January and March.
White aircraft and helicopters are used by the U.N., African Union and other humanitarian agencies to deliver aid. International humanitarian law generally prohibits the disguising of military vehicles as those of neutral agents in an armed conflict. The use of white aircraft for military operations could thus constitute a breach of international law.
Although Sudanese aircraft do not carry the logo or emblem of the U.N. or AU, given the distance from which they would be seen, their white color could easily lead to their being confused for humanitarian aircraft.
A 2006 U.N. report, cited by AI, notes that the use of such white aircraft would place the international agents, including the U.N., under "grave threat", by annulling the protective association of the white. Having come under attack from white aircraft, rebel forces may subsequently open fire on all white targets, including "friendly" targets, such as U.N. aircraft.
China, Russia Violating Own Embargo?
The report also calls on the international community, especially permanent Security Council members China and Russia, to cease arms transfers to Sudan and fully implement the embargo.
"Amnesty International is deeply dismayed by the fact that certain governments, including two Permanent Members of the Security Council—China and Russia—are allowing ongoing flows of arms to parties to Sudan that are diverted for the conflict in Darfur and used there and across the border in Chad to commit grave violations of international law," says the report.
According to AI, China supplied a total of $83 million worth of arms, ammunition and parts in 2005. Russia came in second place with $34.7 million, including Mi-24 helicopter gunships used in attacks on civilians. Muslim countries such as Iran, Kuwait and Egypt also reportedly supplied arms to Sudan, but on a much smaller scale.
Whether the two Security Council members and other states violated the embargo they had imposed remains unclear, however. The data available does not indicate whether the arms were supplied before or after the embargo was extended to include the Sudanese government in March 2005.
But according to AI, the timing of the sales should not matter. Given the scale of Sudanese attacks on civilians by the end of 2004, China and Russia should have known the weapons and aircraft would likely be used to commit international crimes.
Feeds