Where do the Janjaweed's Weapons Come From?

Yesterday a little noticed article appeared in UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph that previewed a new Channel 4 documentary called “Unreported World: Meet the Janjaweed,” which will air in the United Kingdom tomorrow night.

The article profiles Mohammed Hamdan, a leader of the Sudanese government backed Janjaweed militia, who confirms the Janjaweed receives robust support from the government of Sudan in the form of weapons and vehicles, which the Janjaweed then uses to carryout attacks in Darfur.

The Janjaweed have committed many of the most serious human rights atrocities that have occurred in Darfur since the violence erupted in 2003, including killing, maiming, raping and displacing civilians.

The government of Sudan vigorously denies any connection with the Janjaweed, a position that is rejected by experts on the conflict in Darfur.

Hamdan states in the Telegraph article, “All the hardware that we have – where did we get it from? Do you think we just magicked it out of the air? It belongs to the government [of Sudan].” The article goes on to describe that, “Hamdan spoke near a Toyota Land Cruiser, mounted with a heavy machinegun, and his fighters were armed with mortars, anti-aircraft guns and Kalashnikov rifles.”

One important question to ask is where does the government of Sudan acquire the weapons with which it supplies the Janjaweed?

A new report released today by Human Rights First reveals that starting in 2004 (the year in which the U.N. Security Council imposed a legally binding arms embargo on Darfur), China sold the government of Sudan on average 90% of its small arms, and continued to be the near exclusive provider through 2006 (the last year in which small arms data is available). However, as recently as last week, a Chinese official astonishingly claimed that China’s weapons sales to Sudan are not fueling the conflict in Darfur. This seems hard to believe since small arms are the weapons of choice for the Janjaweed who are carrying out many of the atrocities in Darfur, and China provides the vast majority of such small arms to the government of Sudan, which then ships the weapons to the Janjaweed.

The only way for China to truly ensure that its weapons are not reaching Darfur is to immediately halt all sales to Sudan. But that is unlikely to happen without sustained pressure from governments and people around the world. With the Beijing Summer Olympics growing ever closer, China is particularly concerned about its public image, opening a unique advocacy window to get China to halt its arms sales to Sudan. You can sign a petition urging China to stop arms sales to Sudan here.