Mr. Speaker, yesterday the UN Security Council was informed that Zimbabwe is in the midst of its worst humanitarian crisis since independence.
A month after the elections, with no presidential results yet released, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, is supplying his thugs and child soldiers with weapons to brutalize voters to ensure that he wins a possible runoff in the next presidential election.
So far, 15 members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have been killed. Thousands have been displaced. New reports of human rights abuses, murder, torture, rape and beatings are coming in from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The UN Security Council is once again paralyzed while Zimbabweans are being brutalized by their government. Canada cannot remain silent any longer. We must ask the UN Security Council for a military force to be sent in to quell the state-sponsored violence and ensure that the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people prevails.
We have a responsibility to protect. Let us engage our obligation to act.