Gadhafi used Chinese guns to kill rebels?/ENG

2011. szeptember 12./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, September 12: In an audacious violation of UN sanctions, Chinese state-controlled arms manufacturers struck deals with the embattled Gadhafi regime to sell weapons and ammunition worth at least $200-million late July.

In documents obtained by a Canadian daily, The Globe and Mail, last week, Col. Gadhafi’s security officials from Tripoli arrived in Beijing on July 16, and in the following days met with officials from three state-controlled weapons manufacturers in China for shipment of truck-mounted rocket launchers; fuel-air explosive missiles; and anti-tank missiles, among others.

“The Chinese companies thanked the Libyans for their discretion, emphasised the need for confidentiality, and promised to manufacture more supplies if necessary,” the secret documents revealed.

The documents have confirmed earlier suspicions that Beijing ‘s reluctance in endorsing NATO’s actions in Libya may have stemmed from its covert support of the Gadhafi regime.

China last week denied the allegations, but conceded that Libyan officials had visited China in July for talks with "interested companies."

"Chinese companies have not provided military products to Libya in any direct or indirect form. Chinese companies did not sign arm sales contracts and they did not export military products to Libya," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told journalists.

However, senior leaders of the new transitional government in Tripoli say the four-page memo, discovered in a pile of trash in a neighbourhood known as Bab Akkarah, where several of Col. Gadhafi’s most loyal supporters had lavish homes, reinforce their suspicions about the recent actions of China.

Omar Hariri, the head of Libya’s rebel National Transitional Council’s (NTC) military committee, reviewed the documents and concluded they explained the presence of new weapons on the battlefield, The Globe and Mail said.

“I’m almost certain that these guns arrived and were used against our people,” Hariri said.

A rebel military spokesman, Abdulrahman Busin, told reporters last Sunday that the transitional government would seek accountability through appropriate international channels warning that any country that had violated the sanctions would have poor prospects for business and other dealings with Libya, an oil-rich country.

A senior official at the Arabian Gulf Oil Co., in Benghazi, told The Globe and Mail last month that he would be reluctant to do business with Chinese companies in future because of their government’s stand against the rebellion.