WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States Friday criticized Russia's reported sale of 12 MiG fighter jets to Sudan.
"Sudan is a poor country and to go out and buy MiGs, obviously that's something we don't think is a positive step," US State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters when asked if such a purchase undermined Sudan's call for a truce in Darfur.
"It's the last thing that country needs," Wood said.
Russian news agencies quoted Sudanese Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein as saying during a visit to Moscow that Sudan had bought 12 MiG-29 fighter jets from Russia.
Russia was accused by human rights group Amnesty International last year of violating a UN resolution by supplying arms to Sudan that were then used in the war-torn Darfur region, a charge rejected by Russia's foreign ministry.
The UN imposed an embargo on sales and deliveries of arms to Darfur in 2004.
Some 300,000 people have died in the civil war in Darfur since 2003 and two million more have fled their homes, according to UN figures, although some sources put the toll much higher while Sudan says 10,000 people have died.
On Wednesday Sudan's Beshir declared a ceasefire in Darfur and called for disarming militias, but the main rebel movement in the region, the Justice and Equality Movement, dismissed his call as a propaganda stunt for the West.
Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs who has returned to Washington from talks with senior Sudanese officials in Khartoum on November 3, was cautious about Beshir's ceasefire declaration.
"More important than the announcement is the actual implementation," Frazer told AFP on Thursday, noting that past ceasefire declarations have failed to materialize.
"I don't have reason to believe that he (Beshir will follow through) but I am hopeful that he will. We will monitor it. If he does it, we will react positively to that fact," Frazer said.
"If he actually implements a ceasefire and disbands the militias, then we've had a huge step forward in bringing about peace in Darfur," Frazer added.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
