Mr. Chair, I thank the parliamentary secretary for working with all of us in trying to establish a motion that we could support to focus Canada's initiative and activities in a constructive way toward this conflict.
The African Union's mission would not have failed if Khartoum had stopped funding the Janjaweed and its murderous activities in Darfur. If Khartoum had disarmed and immobilized the Janjaweed, the African mission would have been a success.
The reality is that it signed a peace agreement a year and a half ago to do just that and now the same conversations are taking place in Abuja. What happened is that Khartoum deliberately failed to stop the Janjaweed from its activities. The rebel forces in Darfur are having difficulty signing on to this deal because it knows that Khartoum deliberately failed to stop funding the Janjaweed. It has a very legitimate concern.
Based on Khartoum's previous activities and actions, which are well-known to all, not only in Darfur but also in the south, we have to ensure that if it signs on the bottom line it has to live up to the intent of that agreement.
As the member may or may not know, Khartoum threatened to tear up the peace agreement in the south if the international community walked into Darfur.
What happened with Darfur, interestingly enough, was that Khartoum told the AU, which deserves a lot of credit for having the maturity to ask the UN to take this over, that the United Nations could take it over but that the AU would have to ask for Khartoum's permission first, which was not a problem. The second thing Khartoum said was that if there were any non-African Union troops that it would not give the UN permission to come into the country. It is putting in obstacles and making agreements that simply cannot be used to resolve this problem.
I have one last point with respect to the south. We need to do a lot more in supporting the peace agreement in the south. We have to ensure that the international community puts the moneys in through international development to support the newer Dinka tribes in the south who are trying to get their lives back together after this conflict.
I would also like to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs for bringing up the situation of the LRA in Acholiland in northern Uganda. This is the worst place in the world to be a child. There are 20,000 child soldiers. Sudan has a lot to answer for with respect to that, but so does President Museveni in Uganda.
I would encourage the government to support the United Nations' desire to arrest and prosecute Joseph Kony, the head of the LRA, for crimes against humanity. This person and his cabal of murderous cronies must be arrested and prosecuted in the interests of international human rights.