What is bad about China - DJ Sudan Rebel Leader:Troops In Khartoum;Would Expel China Oil Cos
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Sudanese rebels have entered the capital Khartoum and would replace Chinese oil companies with Western ones if they were to overthrow the current government, a rebel leader said Saturday.
The threat is bad news for China, which has become the largest buyer of crude and foreign investor in the Sudanese oil industry as it tries to fill its oil needs resulting from its fast economic growth.
But China's role in Sudan has also come under criticism from Sudan's opposition, which claims it sells weapons used in a deadly conflict in the Western province of Darfur.
Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview, Tahir Elfaki, head of the internal Parliament for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, said the group's troops were now in the western and northern parts of Khartoum and "we hope to remove (the current regime) soon."
CNN and The Associated Press have reported that the capital is under curfew.
The movement, which seeks the overthrow of the current, Arab-dominated regime, is normally based in Darfur. The balance of forces, however, remains unclear at this stage.
Elfaki added, that if JEM were to win, "we are not going to leave the Chinese in peace" and would like to replace them with Western oil companies.
-By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9266; Benoit.Faucon@DowJones.com
Message 24578026
(via elmatador who posted the link on Africa the wireless frontier thread) |
