Azerbaijan RPCV Mark Lenzi says Choke off Sudan's weapons supply from Belarus
Choke off Sudan's weapons supply
Mark Lenzi IHT
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
The role of Belarus
TBILISI, Georgia At the same time that the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, was asking 11 European and Asian nations for urgent funds for the humanitarian crisis in western Sudan, President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan was visiting the European pariah state of Belarus to negotiate the export of weapons that the Sudanese government needs to continue its genocide in Darfur.
According to the United Nations, Belarus - led by Europe's last dictator, Aleksandr Lukashenko - was perhaps the worst violator of UN arms sanctions against Iraq. It has also been one of Khartoum's top weapons suppliers, selling Sudan tanks and helicopter gunships even as a civil war raged that killed more than two million people.
Belarus has not only sold weapons to six of the seven countries on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism (including Sudan) but has continued to defy Washington in doing so, even with the war on terror in full swing. During Bashir's recent visit, Lukashenko not only reaffirmed Belarus's commitment to continue selling weapons to Khartoum but noted his solidarity with Sudan in withstanding international pressure.
If Khartoum is still allowed to purchase weapons from rogue states like Belarus without even so much as a condemnation, then any short-term pressure on Khartoum will turn out to be futile and will further weaken the credibility of the United Nations.
Washington must take the lead in applying tangible pressure not only on Sudan but on those states that continue to supply weaponry to the Sudanese government. Otherwise UN threats will have no effect, and the killing will continue.
Mark Lenzi, author of the forthcoming book "Lost Civilization: The Repression of Civil Society in Eastern Europe," is a former Fulbright Scholar and Peace Corps volunteer in Eastern Europe.
