Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with my colleague, the member for Ajax—Pickering.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in the House this evening, but I am not pleased that it is necessary. We all know that during the summer there was an increase in the pillage and atrocities that have been taking place in Darfur. It is estimated that 400,000 have died and 3.5 million people are in a desperate situation.
I want to come at this a little differently. Yesterday I had the opportunity to be in a situation where prayers were recited for the six million people who died during the Holocaust in Germany. In the course of that period of time, a story was told about 93 women who were asked to service the Germany military. As it happened, during the course of the event, they poisoned themselves and died.
What struck me was the conspiracy of silence and complicity that existed at the time. Given the fact that there are such violent human rights atrocities taking place today, there still is a level of conspiracy and complicity of silence.
We have heard much about what is happening to the women of Darfur, the rapes, the sexual slavery, the torture, the abductions, the destruction of villages and the fact that a disproportionate number of women are in refugee camps. We have heard about the difficulty, the social stigmatization, the destruction of the social infrastructure of their lives, the inability to get help and the fear of being reported. We know there is a genocide taking place where people are hungry and are not having their needs addressed.
We hear words from the other side of what is being done. I do not deny that there are things being done, but it is simply not enough. The genocide in Darfur, and my colleague from the NDP referenced it, must be ended before it destabilizes the rest of Africa. The malignancy of Darfur has now spread to Chad and is moving into the Central African Republic as well. Are we working with France? Are we considering putting UN peacekeepers there or are we being told that we simply do not have the resources?
We are now in the situation where we are looking at appointing a new secretary-general of the United Nations. I want to see a secretary-general whose primary focus will be on ending this genocide, and it is a genocide in Africa.
We have heard much about the responsibility to protect from genocides, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. While there is wide agreement with the principle, the deteriorating situation, and it is deteriorating as we speak tonight, illustrates a gap between stating a principle and having the political will to act upon it.
We have heard much about the Afghanistan situation, but in the riding of Winnipeg South Centre I hear far more about the importance of Canada participating in Darfur. I hear far more about the concerns there. It is important that we take much more concerted, organized action, that diplomatic words are simply not enough. We must take a much harder line with the UN and with other countries.