Tony Martin calls for armed intervention in Darfur

NEWS RELEASE

TONY MARTIN, MP

********************* Martin cites Dallaire and faith leaders in urging immediate assistance in Darfur

OTTAWA – Sault MP Tony Martin invoked former General Romeo Dallaire's haunting words, "how do we value humanity" in Monday's special Parliamentary debate on the war-torn region of Darfur in Sudan.

Martin and the NDP with other MPs are pushing for an armed UN-led force into Darfur where an estimated three million people are homeless amid reports of forced famine, widespread rape of women and girls and government-initiated harassment of aid workers.

"He (Dallaire) looked the evil that is genocide in the face and asked that it never be allowed to happen again," Martin told the House of Commons. "He spoke of the lack of resources and the lack of political will in that situation (in Rwanda)."

"We heard in this city and in this place last week the call of the Holocaust survivors asking us not to forget. There is a voice rising in the country that is reverberating around the world and that will not be ignored. There was a scream on the weekend: 'What price humanity?' It starts at the heart of Sudan itself."

Martin said the $10 million in aid to the region announced by the government Monday was a step in the right direction but he reminded MPs that the previous Liberal government had cut aid from $20 million to $5 million.

Martin quoted from a letter 16 faith leaders wrote the prime minister urging the government to put the four-year Sudan crisis at the top of its international agenda.

Martin recounted the visit to Sault Ste. Marie last year of Elizabeth Majok from the New Sudan Council of Churches calling on the Canadian government to demonstrate authentic leadership and intensify its pressure on the Sudanese government.

She said any peace process must ensure human rights and provide credible monitoring mechanisms.

Martin said it was an odd situation in the Darfur debate to hear the NDP calling for the armed intervention to save the Sudanese while the Conservatives after the failure of seven peace talks were still saying "give peace a chance."

Chapter 7 of the UN Charter allows an armed intervention in a case where a country cannot properly protect its citizens.

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