Spain condemned for selling arms to Sudan

23 July 2004

BARCELONA – Amnesty International and Greenpeace condemned the Spanish government Friday for exporting arms to war-torn Sudan despite a European Union ban.

The civil rights and ecological groups said Spain was selling light arms and munitions to the Sudanese government, according to an investigation by researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

The claims came as the US government called on the  Sudanese government Friday to prosecute the predominantly Araba Janjaweed militia who are attacking defenceless civilians in the Darfur province.

The 15-month conflict has cost the lives of  some 30,000 people and forced at least one million  others into concentration camp-style compounds in an effort to escape the conflict between the Janjaweed and other armed groups.

The Sudanese government is said to be implicit in what the US has called “genocide” by supporting the Janjaweed.

Amnesty and Greenpeace said Spain was breaking a weapons embargo imposed by the EU in 1994 and renewed in January last year.

The United Nations has said Sudan is suffering the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world”.

Amnesty and Greenpeace claimed Inland Revenue records between February 2003 and January this year showed Spain exported EUR 8,000 worth of small arms and munitions to Sudan, breaking the EU human rights embargo.

Both groups called on the Spanish government to accept responsibility for the sale of these arms and the breaking of the EU sanctions.

The government has not yet commented on the issue.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news