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| May 6, 2008 |
Mon May 5, 2008 6:26pm EDT
By John Acher
OSLO, May 5 (Reuters) - China should use its economic might to influence events in Darfur and its absence from an international donors' meeting on Sudan was disappointing, the U.S. special envoy for the east African state said on Monday.
Richard Williamson told Reuters in an interview that Sudan remained the "world's biggest humanitarian crisis" and called the violence in its Darfur region a "genocide in slow-motion."
Williamson criticised China's absence from the start of an international donors' conference on Sudan on Monday.
"China is the country with the deepest economic involvement with the nation of Sudan -- they buy the bulk of Sudan's oil," Williamson said. "I am told that close to 6 percent of the imported oil in China comes from Sudan."
"So if they were to choose to use that influence constructively, they could have an impact, and one that other members of the international community would like to see them take," he said.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been driven from their homes in five years of revolt in Darfur. Khartoum blames the Western media for exaggerating the conflict and puts the death toll at 10,000.
Williamson said he told a closed meeting on Darfur in Oslo that there could be no progress on Darfur if the Comprehensive Peace Agreement unravelled. The 2005 peace accord ended 25 years of fighting between northern and southern Sudan.
"While there is an acute need for economic development in Darfur, no meaningful progress is possible until we have a secure situation," he said, calling reports on Monday of an air bombardment in Darfur "extremely troubling and unacceptable."