TENS of thousands
of Chinese troops and prisoners forced to work as security guards
have been moved into Sudan.
They have been sent in preparation for a big offensive against
southern rebels to try to bring to an end one of Africa's longest-running
conflicts, according to Western counter-terrorism officials.The
Chinese have been brought in by aircraft and ship, ostensibly
to guard Sudan's increasingly productive oilfields in which the
China National Petroleum Corporation is a leading partner.
Col Johnny
Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has managed in
recent weeks to advance within 10 miles of the oilfields in the
Upper Nile region, causing the country's Islamic regime to activate
emergency plans drawn up with allies whose interests in the oil
project are directly under threat.
These plans
aim to crush the rebels from the mainly Christian and animist
south and bring to an end the 17-year civil war that has cost
an estimated two million lives. Since oil production began last
year arms have been arriving from Libya, Qatar and China. The
ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) is spending £300 million
a year of its oil revenues on weapons, according to western intelligence
sources.
The NIF denies
this charge but last month Gen Mohamed Osman Yassin, the Sudanese
army spokesman, told student conscripts that "thanks to our
growing oil industry" Sudan is now "manufacturing ammunition,
mortars, tanks and armoured personnel carriers". The SPLA
captured a group of Chinese in an attack last week.
An internal
document from the Sudanese military said that as many as 700,000
Chinese security personnel were available for action. Three flights
a week have been taking the Chinese into Sudan since work on the
oilfields started three years ago. Diplomats in Khartoum, however,
cast doubt on the numbers.
Baroness Caroline
Cox, the leading human rights campaigner who has just returned
from Sudan where she helped to free 353 slaves captured by NIF
soldiers, yesterday accused western governments of turning a blind
eye to what is going on because of their own economic interests
in the oil.
She warned:
"If with foreign help the NIF regime crushes all opposition
we will have entrenched in the heart of Africa a militant Islamist
regime aimed at spreading terrorism throughout the continent.
It's unbelievably serious for the future of democracy in Africa
and could happen in the next few weeks."
She was particularly
critical of the British Government. Last month it welcomed the
Sudanese foreign minister on a visit even although Sudan is still
technically under United Nations sanctions that ban such visits,
and officially is still regarded as a pariah state. She said:
"The British Government has developed a complete cosy relationship
to a regime which is raping, bombing and taking its people into
slavery. It doesn't fit at all with our so-called ethical foreign
policy, and there is no question the shift has come because of
the oil."
Two British
companies have won contracts to build pumping stations on the
1,000-mile pipeline from the Heglig oilfield, in the war-torn
south, to the Red Sea. British oil companies have also discussed
investing in the Sudanese oil industry, described in a Department
of Trade and Industry pamphlet this year as "a tremendous
opportunity".
The Canadian
multi-national Talisman Energy, the main backer of the pipeline
with the Chinese and Malaysians national oil companies, has faced
public outcry over its involvement. Reports that thousands of
civilians have been killed and driven from their homes in order
to secure the oilfields have led North American consumers to boycott
petrol stations, and pension funds to sell shares.
There has
been so much criticism that America imposed economic sanctions
on Sudan's oil enterprise. The mission was told that Talisman's
contractual obligation more or less provides that the oilfield
facilities can be used for military purposes. A UN rapporteur
told the mission: "If oil companies don't know what's going
on they're not looking over the fences of their compounds."
As fighting
has escalated in recent months, the NIF has stepped up attacks
on civilian targets. Yesterday Washington condemned the raids
on civilian and relief targets including schools, hospitals and
feeding stations. According to the SPLA, five such attacks took
place last week, making it impossible for agencies to deliver
aid.
A Western
aid worker in southern Sudan said: "Everyone knows what is
going on. We've all seen the Chinese being brought in and can
only pray about what's going to happen next."
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