By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese sales of assault rifles andother small arms to its ally Sudan have grown rapidly duringthe Darfur conflict despite a U.N. arms embargo, a human rightsgroup said on Thursday.
Human Rights First, a U.S.-based nonprofit group, said adetailed study of Sudanese and U.N. trade data showed thatChina was virtually the sole supplier of small arms to Sudan,which pays for the weapons with its growing oil revenues.
"The people of Sudan's Darfur region will endure moredeath, disease and dislocation, and this will be due in nosmall part to China's callousness," said the report, whichcalled on Beijing to stop all arms sales to Sudan and urged theworld to link that campaign to the Beijing Olympics.
China bristles at Western criticism that it has not usedits influence to press for an end to the bloodshed in Darfur,which the United States has labelled as genocide. It angrilyrejects efforts to link its policies to the showcase BeijingGames due to take place this summer.
China sold Sudan $55 million (27 million pounds) worth ofsmall arms from 2003-2006 and provided 90 percent of Sudan'ssmall arms since 2004 when a U.N. arms embargo took effect, thereport said.
Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles, grenade launchers andammunition for rifles and heavy machine guns have all flowedinto Darfur, said the report.
ACTION AND RHETORIC
International experts estimate some 200,000 people havedied and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes inDarfur since conflict erupted in 2003, when rebels took up armsagainst the central government. The government has mobilizedmainly Arab militias to quell the revolt.
China's embassy in Washington said in a statement thatChina, "in line with relevant U.N. resolutions and China's ownpolicies regarding arms sales, requires normal defensive usageby the buyer country."
Sudan's refusal to obey U.N. Security Council resolutionsbanning arms transfers to Darfur undercut China's assertions itcould not affect Sudan's behaviour there, the group said.
"China can exercise absolute control over its own actionsand can stop shipping arms to the Sudanese government which haspublicly stated that it will ignore the U.N. arms embargo,"said Betsy Apple, representing the group.
But Human Rights Now was not advocating a boycott of theBeijing Olympics as some Darfur activists have called for.
"We believe that China is particularly vulnerable in thelead up to the Olympics, Apple told reporters. "We want to seeChina's concrete action that matches its rhetoric."
(Editing by Alan Elsner)