International Arms Trade Fuelling Human Rights Abuses in Darfur, Sudan

"Two Antonov airplanes, five helicopters and two MiGs attacked our village at around 6am. Five tanks came into town. The attack lasted until 7pm ... Eighteen men and two children from our family were killed when fleeing." - Testimony provided to Amnesty International by Aziza Abdel Jaber Mohammed and her half sister Zahra Adam Arja about an attack in North Darfur

(New York) -- Amnesty International (AI) today revealed details of an uncontrolled international arms trade that is fuelling massive human rights abuses, including the killing, rape, torture and displacement of more than one million civilians in Darfur. In a 43-page report, Sudan: Arming the Perpetrators of Grave Abuses in Darfur, the organization identifies recent arms transfers and accuses foreign governments of enabling the Sudanese government to arm and deploy untrained and unaccountable militias in Darfur.

"It is a travesty that governments have sold weapons to Sudan despite widespread reports of serious human rights abuses by the security forces," stated Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "By allowing arms and other military equipment to be sent to Sudan without guarantees that they would not be used to commit such violations, foreign governments have knowingly signaled their willingness to be complicit in torture, rape and murder."

The report examines how the Sudanese government has used revenue from the lucrative oil industry to increase its military spending and documents the devastating effects of the arms trade on the civilian population.

According to descriptions of the internally displaced and refugees in Chad, the types of weapons most frequently used by militias and armed forces to kill civilians are rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Kalashnikovs (AK47s), bazookas, rifles, G3 rifles, Belgian FAL rifles, and grenades. Bombings employing imported military aircraft have led to mass displacement, devastation of villages and the destruction of livelihoods.

Based on the testimony of hundreds of survivors that Amnesty International gathered, as well as commercial documents, UN arms trade data and other sources, other report findings include:

l The Russian Federation, China and Belarus have sold military aircraft and components to Sudan, despite repeated use of such aircraft to bomb villages and support ground attacks on civilians;

l Tanks, military vehicles and artillery have been transferred to Sudan from Belarus, Russia and Poland, even though such equipment has been used to help launch indiscriminate and direct attacks on civilians;

l China, France, Iran and Saudi Arabia have exported grenades, rifles, pistols, ammunition and other small arms and light weapons to Sudan;

l Arms brokering companies from the UK and Ireland recently attempted to provide large numbers of Antonov aircraft and military vehicles from Ukraine and pistols from Brazil; and

l Military training and cooperation has been offered by Belarus, India, Malaysia and Russia.

The south of the Darfur region has been affected by the proliferation of landmines. Some antipersonnel landmines found in Sudan in 2000 originally were produced in the United States.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government accuses the armed opposition of receiving arms from Eritrea; rebel groups claim to obtain weapons from attacks on Sudanese government forces.

"We recognize the importance of the longstanding arms embargo imposed by the European Union and the actions of the governments of Bulgaria, Lithuania and the UK, which already have begun to halt the arms flows to Sudan," stated Adotei Akwei, Advocacy Director for Africa of AIUSA. "However, other governments have yet to display their readiness to put people before profit. The states named in the report must immediately suspend all transfers to Sudan of arms and related supplies that have contributed to grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by all parties to the conflict."

Amnesty International is recommending that the United Nations (UN) Security Council impose a mandatory arms embargo- accompanied by rigorous UN monitoring both inside and outside Sudan-to halt exports of arms likely to be used to commit human rights violations. The embargo should remain in effect until safeguards exist to protect civilians from grave human rights abuses.

Amnesty International also is campaigning for all states to establish more rigorous controls on conventional arms to prevent the arms trade from contributing to human rights disasters in the future.
###

For a full copy of the report, Sudan: Arming the Perpetrators of Grave Abuses in Darfur, please contact Michelle Linder: mlinder@aiusa.org