Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Frontenac—Mégantic.
It is with a sense of moral obligation that I rise on this morning of April 13—I should say this night of April 13 since I have been here since around 2 p.m.—to take part in this emergency debate on the situation in Kosovo.
I was not obliged to join in, my whip did not twist my arm, I am doing it out of a sense of moral obligation. After watching what has been going on in Kosovo for several months, and in the former Yugoslavia for several years, I believe that as parliamentarians we have the duty not to stand idly by.
It is our duty not only to rise in the House, but also to listen to our fellow citizens who have something to say on this issue. This is what I have been doing for the past few days knowing this debate might take place today.
Everybody agrees the situation is complex. But we can no longer tolerate ongoing crimes against humanity. We can no longer tolerate massacres such as those in Rwanda a few years ago. One of my constituent comes from Rwanda, my son has several friends whose parents used to live in Rwanda; they escaped and came here as refugees. In the case of Rwanda, the west dragged its feet and failed to prevent the massacre.
For me, it was a lesson. We can no longer let such things occur. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly because the west failed to get organized to prevent such a tragedy.
At least in Kosovo, NATO countries were more prepared morally to intervene. This time they were more committed to intervene even though the solution is a very complex one. We could see it coming, it has been going on for years.
First there was the conflict between the Serbs and the Croats, then we all remember what happened in Bosnia. For the people of Kosovo, this has gone on for a number of months, close to a year now. Warnings, negotiations, the Rambouillet summit and threats were used to get President Milosevic to stop his planned campaign of ethnic cleansing, if he did not want to face NATO strikes.
These strikes did follow, because the president of Serbia decided to continue with his plan, which led to the exodus of 600,000 to 800,000 Kosovars out of Kosovo. This, of course, followed upon threats of all sorts against them.
It is in my nature to always try to weight issues as much as possible, and to pay attention to the information received via the various media, while realizing that there are often two sides to a conflict. There are often two sides to any kind of story.
When 600,000 refugees leave the country, there are 600,000 stories for observers to hear at the borders of Albania, Macedonia or Montenegro. And 600,000 to 800,000 people cannot all be lying, especially when we see their columns of misery as they come to the end of a journey of many days without even basic necessities.
We have heard of people whose passports have been seized. Any document that could prove ownership of property was destroyed. Even in the most optimistic of scenarios, they will have trouble getting their property back. Moreover, we have also seen that property going up in smoke. This is a truly deplorable situation.
Dictators' imposition of their will can no longer be tolerated without any reaction. I am no expert in international law but, under the circumstances, it is regrettable that the UN cannot intervene in this conflict. There are countries on the security council, like China and Russia, that have a veto and that are preventing the resolution of situations like the one in Iraq. There was international support for action against Saddam Hussein.
When things are blocked as they are in this case, NATO steps in. This is not the ideal situation. As the previous speaker said, allies are involved. Situations exist in some NATO countries that could be criticized, such as in Turkey and other countries. This is not, however, what today's debate is about. Still, we must not forget our critical eye and our humanitarian feelings for the people suffering cruelty in these countries.
We have an international organization barely 50 years old that is somewhat tied up by rules and the jurisprudence that has guided it in such situations.
This has to stop, because these sorts of situations occur pretty much everywhere. They are happening outside Europe. We need only think of the people of Tibet, whose government is in exile in India. They happen pretty much the world over. We saw what happened in Asia. So, I say, enough.
We speak of globalization in trade terms, but maybe we should think of the globalization of peace. In other words, communities should join together to actively work toward peace. We do not have all the figures, but it currently costs $150 million per day to bomb the former Yugoslavia and the various military or civilian targets, including refineries, to deprive Milosevic of some military power. But do we hear about that kind of money being spent on humanitarian assistance?
When it comes to humanitarian assistance, we must rely on government assistance and all Canadians must be encouraged to make a contribution. But at the same time, we should invest at least as much money as we do in offensive military initiatives. We must be prepared to implement a new Marshall plan following this crisis, otherwise it will make no sense. We will have witnessed a deportation. We must already be thinking about some form of help for those afflicted by the war. This could even include the Serbs, because there is no doubt in my mind that many are good people who are the victims of a dictatorship, of a tyrant who has decided to impose his will.
Some progress has been made regarding international peace. However, the tribunals that judge war crimes and crimes against humanity are frustrated in their efforts. Mrs. Roy was prevented from inquiring about a massacre that took place in Kosovo and in the former Yugoslavia. Everyone supports peace, but I often hear people say that, while they support peace, they do not want us to intervene in these conflicts. What would we do if we saw our neighbour beat his wife and children? We would call the police. In a case like this one, I think we must send in ground troops if that is called for.