Beijing: China is the biggest supplier of small arms to Sudan following three years of increased sales that helped fuel violence in the African nation's Darfur region, a US-based rights group has said.

From 2004 to 2006,China sold over $55 million worth of small arms to the Sudanese government, which then armed the Arab militias accused of genocide in Darfur, Human Rights First said in a report released yesterday. "While other countries were decreasing their arms sales to Khartoum, China stepped in to fill the void by providing Sudan with some 90 per cent of its small arms during 2004-2006," Human Rights First said.

"This makes China the single largest provider of small arms to Sudan." The group urged China to end its arms trade with Sudan immediately, and said the Chinese government may be susceptible to influence in this regard as it tries to project a responsible image ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Sudan was paying for the arms out of the revenues it received by selling oil to China, it said. Betsy Apple, a director at Human Rights First, said Chinese assertions that its arms trade with Sudan was small and that its military supplies were not ending up in Darfur should not be believed.

"So long as it continues to sell massive quantities of small arms to Khartoum, the government of China has created a virtual supply line from the small arms factories in China to the Sudanese government-sponsored militias killing civilians in Darfur," Apple said. Following a trip to Sudan this month, China s special envoy on Darfur, Liu Giujin, said it was unfair to criticise the Chinese government over its selling of arms to Sudan.

Source : PTI