Amnesty Accuses Russia of Violating Arms Embargo to Darfur

Today Amnesty International has published “new” photographic evidence that they claim proves that Russia is violating the UN arms embargo on the Sudan, and continuing the flow of weapons to feed the genocide in Darfur. The photos were originally taken in July, and provided to Amnesty by the International Peace Information Service (an item of news that some blogs picked up on last May). According to the AI statement, “In South Darfur, a Sudanese government Antonov aircraft carried out bombing raids in August after an attack by one armed opposition movement on the town of Adila. They targeted villages and water points. There have been a number of Antonov raids on Ta’alba, while the villages of Habib Suleiman and Fataha were also bombed. An Antonov capable of such raids was reportedly transferred from Russia to Sudan in September 2006.” According to the Washington Post coverage, Amnesty wants countries that violate the arms embargo to face penalties:

Amnesty’s U.S. director, Larry Cox, said in a statement: “Sudan flaunts its impudence of the U.N. arms and peace agreements by persisting to send arms into Darfur. An embargo is only effective if there are repercussions for defiance.” Cox called on the Security Council to strongly enforce the embargo as soon as possible by placing U.N. observers at all ports of entry. “Darfur is a good place to start,” he said.

Right to Left: The Russian-supplied Antonov 12 freighter aircraft with registration number ST-ASA is listed as operated by Azza Transport, itself under investigation by the UN Panel of Experts on the Sudan arms embargo for arms transfers into Darfur; a Russian-supplied Mi-24 attack helicopter (registration number 928) redeployed to El Geneina airport from Nyala, Darfur – (Russia supplied 12 such attack helicopters to Sudan in 2005), and a Russian-supplied Mi-17 military helicopter (registration number 534) belonging to the Sudanese Air Force at El Geneina (Russia signed a deal to supply at least 15 such helicopters for delivery in 2005 and 2006). Source: Amnesty International