Chinese troops off to Sudan
2007-09-18 12:00
Beijing - China has begun sending a third batch of soldiers to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan, say reports, amid plans for an upcoming deployment in the troubled Darfur region.
The first members of the 435-strong engineering, logistics, transportation and medical force left eastern China on Monday, headed for Sudan's Wau region, said reports.
The troops were the third rotation of the peacekeeping force that China had deployed in Wau since May 2006, it said.
Last week, China said it would deploy a similar unit to Darfur next month to build roads and dig wells for the 26 000-strong African Union-UN peacekeeping force that was approved by the UN's Security Council on July 31 and would likely start deploying early next year.
200 000 people killed
That announcement came amid efforts by Beijing to counter claims that it was reluctant to support international intervention in Darfur because of its close ties to the regime in Khartoum.
The four-year-old Darfur conflict between rebels and government-backed militias had killed 200 000 people and left 2.5 million homeless.
Energy-hungry China bought two-thirds of Sudan's oil output and sells weapons to the Khartoum regime.
Critics said Beijing had not used its economic leverage to push Sudan's government more strongly for peace in Darfur, and had attempted to shame China into acting by linking the Darfur crisis to next year's Summer Olympics in the Chinese capital.
Defending China's role in Darfur, China's special envoy for Darfur, Liu Guijin, recently offered to act as a go-between in new peace negotiations to end the conflict.
AP
- AP