The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudans government militarily in Darfur, BBC online reports Sunday.
The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005. The BBC was also told that China was training fighter pilots who fly Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur.
Chinas government has declined to comment on the BBCs findings. They contravene a UN arms embargo on Darfur, which requires foreign nations to take measures to ensure they do not militarily assist anyone in the conflict in Darfur.
UN estimates that about 300.000 people have died in Darfur and more than two million people are also believed to have fled their villages, destroyed by pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia.
Panorama traced the first lorry by travelling deep into the remote deserts of West Darfur. They found a Chinese Dong Feng army lorry in the hands of one of Darfurs rebel groups. The BBC established through independent eyewitness testimony that the rebels had captured it from Sudanese government forces in December.
The rebels filmed a second lorry with the BBC’s camera. Both vehicles had been carrying anti-aircraft guns, one a Chinese gun.
Markings showed that they were from a batch of 212 Dong Feng army lorries that the UN had traced as having arrived in Sudan after the arms embargo was put in place. The lorries came straight from the factory in China to Sudan and were consigned to Sudans defence ministry. The guns were mounted after the lorries were imported from China.
Witnesses said they saw the first Dong Feng which the BBC tracked down being used with its anti-aircraft gun in an attack in a town called Sirba, in West Darfur, in December.
– When it is shooting or firing there is nowhere for you to move and the sound is just like the sound of the rain. Then “Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!” said Hamaad Abakar Adballa, a witness in the Chadian refugee town of Birak.
The lorrys powerful anti-aircraft gun fired straight into civilian houses. The gun carries high calibre shells that explode on impact, spreading hot shards of metal and causing terrible wounds
