Mr. Chair, this evening, in the debate on this very heavy subject of Darfur, I am grateful for the privilege to stand and have my voice counted for those who cannot speak for themselves today in that part of the world.
I had the opportunity last September to be in Khartoum and in Juba, Sudan in the south. Due to intermittent flights in that part of the world and arbitrary changes to the schedule, we did not quite reach Darfur but we did talk with many people who had been there, some of the aid groups, the various NGOs and so on, who told us about some of the horrific things that were happening in the Darfur area.
My concern for Darfur grows from the fact that if we do not resolve the major crisis in Darfur, there is a very good chance that the north-south comprehensive peace agreement will break down. I do believe the government in Khartoum is looking for the opportunity to blow apart that agreement.
What I heard over the period of time that I was in the Sudan was a growing concern. Other members who have followed this and monitored it closely and others who have been to that part of the world have obviously heard some of those reports as well. However I am encouraged by the fact that there is a growing will on the part of parliamentarians and a growing political will in this country for Canada to take a more decisive role in an international effort to stop the war crimes, the ethnic cleansing and the crimes against humanity.
I am also encouraged that our new Prime Minister raised this matter with President Bush in Cancun and that they agreed to work together on finding a solution. I am heartened by their discussion.
I am also grateful and encouraged by the fact that a large number of MPs from across party lines have called for more action. I am appreciative that the House is holding this debate tonight on Darfur as a result of the agreement between the House leaders in that respect.
It gave me hope when I heard the Prime Minister, in his speech on the Holocaust memorial and genocide, say that the world must never tolerate that happening again. It gave me hope because of the very serious situation in Darfur.
In his remarks of March 14 in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister said that we could not lead from the bleachers. I believe that with all my heart. I believe we have a country and a government that will be behind doing something better in respect to that part of the world. I want Canada to be that leader in the world at this point in time.
How Canada can do that is by starting to change our Sudan policy. Until this Parliament, Canada's Sudan policy was really that of a so-called constructive engagement in a previous regime and it simply has not worked. Before that carnage began in Darfur three years ago, more than 2 million people died and 4 million were displaced, driven from their homes in the oil fields of southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains.
The regime in northern Khartoum bears sole responsibility for that tragedy. The oil rich regime has killed and displaced its black African people with helicopter gunships and Arab militias. It has allowed its armed forces and militias to murder, rape and pillage with impunity and then deliberately allowed the survivors to starve to death. This has gone on for a number of years while the world has looked away.
In the last century the world blinked at Nazi aggression in Europe and World War II followed. Will the world now blink again, this time as radical aggression in Africa is being unleashed in Darfur?
While some argue that the Darfur horrors do not constitute genocide, no credible voice would deny that war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity are occurring there. Therefore, we need to lead as a country.
World leaders called it a moral imperative and resolved to go into Kosovo in the situation there. If European civilians can be saved in Kosovo why can Africans not be saved in Darfur? I believe it is racism. It is an issue of black Muslims there. It is an issue of Arab Muslims up in the north and it is an issue of racism.
If the African Union in the coming days of the peace process cannot go ahead, then we need to seriously look at moving in, in some fashion, on that situation. The black woman who is being viciously raped does not care if it is an African or a white person who steps in to intervene and rescue her. The man who is being brutally beaten and tortured does not care about the colour of the skin, nor does a child being violently traumatized.
Canada needs to leave the bleachers. It needs to lead. I ask for our country to do that in this horrific situation in Darfur, Sudan on the continent of Africa.