Amnesty International has called on Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt to raise the issue of the arms trade with China’s President Hu Jintao, who arrives in Denmark for a state visit today.

“In connection with the Chinese state visit, Amnesty would like to draw attention to the negative role that China has hitherto played during the historic UN negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty,” Amnesty says in its letter.

It adds it hopes Denmark will use the state visit to raise arguments against ‘Chinese attempts to dilute the Arms Trade Treaty’ which is to be negotiated at a July 2-27 conference in New York.

Amnesty says that China is working to prevent hand weapons and other light weapons from being included in the treaty. These weapons, Amnesty says are responsible for more than 500,000 deaths each year due to conflicts or crime.

The organisation adds that its recent report on the Democratic Republic of Congo and the case for an effective arms trade treaty showed “how continued deliveries of weapons from particularly China, France, the United States and Ukraine allow the Congolese security forces and armed militias to carry out serious human rights abuses including murder, rape and the abuse of men, women and children”.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is to have political discussions with the Chinese president on Saturday, has declined to comment on the Amnesty approach, which at the time of being interviewed she had not yet seen.

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