DARFUR: AMNESTY ACCUSES CHINA, RUSSIA OF SUPPLYING ARMS TO SUDAN

London, 8 May (AKI) - Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has accused China and Russia of violating a United Nations arms embargo by continuing to supply weapons to the Sudanese goverment for use in Darfur. In a report published Tuesday the London-based non-governmental organisation said Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Belarus have also been supplying weapons to the authorities in Khartoum. Amnesty's claim comes just over a week after widely leaked UN report said that the Sudanese government had painted its military planes in UN colours in an attempt to disguise the transport of weapons to Darfur.One of the authors of the Amnesty report, Brian Wood, has called on Russia and China to comply with the embargo to protect the civilians of Darfur. "We're talking about the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet," Wood said."Both the governments of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation need to reign in all their arms supplies and munitions supplies to Sudan as part of a package of measures needed to help get the human rights of the people of Darfur back again."Amnesty International also accuses Sudan of continuing to target civilians in indiscriminate air attacks in Darfur and also of supporting the Arab Janjaweed militia's operations against the local African rebel groups.Sudan has rejected Amnesty's accusations.Its UN ambassador, Mahmoud Abdel-Haleem, dismissed Amnesty's photographic evidence of the use of military aircraft in Darfur. "Our reaction to Amnesty International's allegations is very easy," he was quoted as saying in a ABC report."It is total rejection as it is baseless and unfounded," he said. "These photos may be of a plane in the Central African Republic or maybe for one in south Sudan, but it is not in Darfur at all," he said.