Mr. Chairman, I introduced this motion in the wake of the report we worked on. If you remember, we hoped to have a unanimous position and to secure the cooperation of both parties.
At the time, we had discussed the fact that Canada was giving direct aid to Ethiopia, but giving nothing to Eritrea. However, Lloyd Axworthy, who has never been my idol and who was no longer a member of the Liberal Party, had been appointed by Kofi Annan as the intermediary between Eritrea and Ethiopia to try to have Ethiopia accept the border established by a UN committee. By its signature, Ethiopia had originally agreed to respect the border. Lloyd Axworthy had tried to intervene, but was unable to do so. He mentioned to this committee—I read it in his report— that he found it strange that CIDA provided direct aid to that country, without pointing out to its representatives that Ethiopia had undertaken to respect the borders. At the time, I tried to have that added to the motion, but we did not agree on that point.
Today, I know that Mr. Obhrai will be introducing an amendment, because I was unaware of one piece of information. He told me that Canada was no longer providing direct aid to Ethiopia, like Great Britain and other countries, in view of the democratic and other problems that Ethiopia has experienced. Aid is going through the United Nations, but no longer through Ethiopia. He will therefore read an amendment to the motion with which I agree. However, the motion calls for the committee to ask Canada to provide more assistance to Eritrea, not directly, but through the World Food Program.
That would complete the motion because we've discussed it on a number of occasions. We wanted the motion to reflect the idea of helping both countries come to an agreement and to treat them fairly. That was the spirit in which we intended it.