I have discussed this for years in terms of international security, and now Amnesty International is claiming they have proof of Chinese directly fueling the conflict in Sudan:

The human rights group says Russia and China have transferred arms and ammunition to Sudan “aware that many such arms are being deployed… for direct attacks on civilians”.

It cites 2005 trade figures as showing China sold $24m and Russia $21m of military material to Sudan.

Amnesty says it is “dismayed that certain governments, including two permanent Security Council members are allowing ongoing flows of arms to parties in Sudan”.

Of course the Sudan government insists there is no connection between the arms arriving and their use in Darfur.

It makes sense that the Chinese are involved in weapons supply to insurgencies around the world, as conflict regions become their research and development labs for countering US technology. Who knows if they are behind the Syrian chemical weapon tests as well. The big difference about this compared with the Russians is the quality of technology and Russian concern with links to guerrilla fighters close to home.

It is important to note that the US has continued to supply weapons to troubled regions as well, and appears to want to exclude itself from any efforts against proliferation of illegal arms including explosives. Here are the additional sources of arms for Sudan that were identified by the human rights group:

Amnesty has also accused Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Belarus of supplying arms.

Belarus? That is obviously a Russian connection. Although a bit dated, the FAS small arms study explains from where the former two countries get their supplies:

Saudi Arabia is America’s top customer [according to 2002 data]. Since 1990, the U.S. government, through the Pentagon’s arms export program, has arranged for the delivery of more than $39.6 billion in foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia, and an additional $394 million worth of arms were delivered to the Saudi regime through the State Department’s direct commercial sales program during that same period.

The proliferating arms trade clearly needs better controls if anyone is to establish a proper connection. The eye-witness accounts and testimony are important since much of the records are probably faked, or at least there is a serious problem reported with regard to denial:

Switzerland exported small arms valued at $4.3 million (SFr5.3 million) to war-torn Sudan in 2002, according to a report presented to the United Nations.

The report, from Geneva’s Institute of International Studies, claims that Switzerland was the second-largest supplier of such weapons after Iran.

The Small Arms Survey 2004 describes the deliveries from Switzerland as “military weapons�. Swiss legislation forbids the export of war materiel to countries at war or to conflict areas.

But an official in Bern said the figures were either false or referred to arms exported illegally. They came as a complete surprise to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).

The head of Seco’s export controls and sanctions, Othmar Wyss, said on Saturday that the figures had apparently been supplied by the Sudanese government. “Either these figures are incorrect, or these are weapons exported illegally,â€? he said.

Iran too, eh? Incidentally, SFr5.3 million is apparently about half of what the Swiss pledged in humanitarian aid to Sudan for the same year.

But again this goes beyond small arms, as heavy weaponry and aircraft are often cited by human rights organizations that work in the region.

“When I was in Chad in February, I collected a number of testimonies from refugees from Darfur who specifically identified MiGs as having been involved in the bombings of villages and so on,” said Leslie Lefkow, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who has interviewed people caught up in the conflict. “They drew pictures of what the planes looked like.”