Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House calls on the United Nations to:

(1)

substantially increase the level of aid to the Darfur region of the Sudan;

(2)

call upon member nations to provide peacekeeping forces to quell the civil war currently taking place in the country;

(3)

lift the profile of this catastrophic situation that confronts Darfur and the conflict which has already claimed 300,000 lives and seen 2.4 million people displaced;

(4)

work effectively with the NGOs to ensure a substantial lift in the level of privately sourced aid going to the region; and

(5)

ensure that maximum cooperation is given to peace negotiations.

As the House would be aware, the humanitarian disaster occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan only continues to worsen. The plight of the people of this region should resonate with every member of the House, as it should with every member country of the United Nations. It is almost beyond belief that this wanton murder, this genocide, of innocent people by armed militias could occur in our time. From within Australia, it is hard to picture the terror these people suffer in their daily existence. It is hard to imagine the feeling of waiting for the next raid by Janjaweed militias, not knowing if you, your spouse or your children will be the next to be murdered in the name of sectarian violence.

It is more than 2½ years since the crisis began. The western region of Darfur is recognised as being a monumental humanitarian disaster. It is estimated that 300,000 people have been killed in this conflict and an additional 2.4 million people have been displaced over three years. On average, 60,000 people a year have been killed, which is far beyond the tolerance of most people. To put this in context, the number of people killed every day in the western region of Darfur is more than the total number of members of the House. Unfortunately, the situation continues to deteriorate. People are still dying in vast numbers from violence, malnutrition and disease. While humanitarian access has improved to a very moderate degree, we are not seeing a corresponding decrease in the mortality rates in this region.

The international community is failing to protect these people adequately. Pressure must be brought to bear on the government in Khartoum to disarm the Janjaweed and restore order and peace. I call on this House to make the strongest representations possible for the UN to act swiftly and strongly, for this is quite simply a matter of life and death. As the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, it is our moral duty to pressure the United Nations, of which Australia was a formation member, to markedly increase foreign aid and to ready a large international peacekeeping force to quell the violence. Some of the refugee camps are reputedly home to more than 100,000 people who are living in the most squalid and distressing conditions. This conflict has already claimed more than 300,000 innocent lives.

The international community stood back and watched the senseless destruction in Rwanda, which is still reeling and scarred from its experience. After Rwanda, the world promised that it would never again sit on its hands and watch a systemic genocide, yet the Sudan already closely resembles Rwanda. Without a huge international effort and a strong commitment to a peaceable solution, the situation will continue to worsen.

The Australian government has already committed strongly to resolving the problems in Darfur. Over the past two years Australia has spent more than $50 million to help displaced people in Sudan. Just last week the Minister for Foreign Affairs announced another $5 million in Australian support for Darfur and $2 million for southern Sudan. This money will be used to provide more emergency food through the World Food Program and UNICEF.

The international community has resolved on numerous occasions to call on the government of Sudan to allow full access to Darfur for peacekeepers and aid. The crisis in Darfur will be solved not by war, but rather by a properly negotiated political solution that addresses the underlying cause of the conflict.

Australia has strongly supported UN Security Council action on Sudan, including the establishment of the UN Mission in Sudan, UNMIS, and assisted the implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement, which was signed in January 2005. We have contributed 15 specialist ADF personnel and 10 Federal Police officers to the UN mission.

Now that the government of Sudan has signed a peace agreement with the main rebel group, there is no basis for it to delay and to place conditions on a transition. But it continues to stall. There is a need to work more closely with NGOs to find a political settlement to the problem. Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, World Vision, the Red Cross and a wide array of other organisations are working tirelessly in Sudan and it is vital that they receive the strongest possible support from the international community.

Already, the balance of Australia’s funding for Darfur is ceded to various international NGOs. The government also provides support to several Australian NGOs working in Sudan. However, some of these projects have recently been scaled back as staff have had to be withdrawn due to the ever-increasing threat of violence toward aid workers. A number of aid workers have been killed and injured over the last few months.

The situation in Darfur is so serious that we, as legislators—and Australians, as human beings with compassion—are beholden to do all we can to push toward a solution to this dreadful conflict. Genocide is not a domestic affair; it affects the whole world. I call upon the House to recognise the importance of the situation in Darfur and to call for the appropriate steps to be taken to restore peace and order in one of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries. I commend this motion to the House.

Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Petro Georgiou (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I strongly support this motion and congratulate the member for Cook for again bringing this matter on Darfur to national and international attention and to the attention of this parliament. I know many members across the parliament feel strongly about the need to take more action. Without continually raising this issue through motions such as this, we cannot apply sufficient pressure—and we must keep applying that pressure—on the Sudanese government and international bodies. Of course, we must also urge our own government to continue its action to see whether there is anything else we can do to stop the great hardship we see occurring.

The origins of this conflict, between government sponsored Arab militias and two rebel groups—the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudanese Liberation Movement—are many. While the political conflict emerged after attacks by rebel groups on government targets, the recruitment of Arab militias by the Sudanese government to attack villages added a very ugly ethnic dimension to an already ugly dispute. Some commentators have also pointed to the competition for land and water resources between nomadic and sedentary tribes in the region as contributing to the conflict.

But, whilst the origins are complex—and we can go through them many times—there is no shortage of evidence that the conflict in Darfur continues to have an absolutely appalling humanitarian cost. Staggeringly, the World Health Organisation estimates that up to 10,000 people die of disease and violence each month. I note the member for Cook cited some other figures. In any case, the figures are staggering. On top of this, currently 1.8 million displaced people cannot return to their homes and are living in fear.

In Australia we have a new and heightened investment to resolve this crisis, with the growing number of refugees arriving on our shores from the region. I have quite a large Sudanese population living in Gellibrand and I want to ensure that Australia plays its role in making Sudan safe for their extended families and in helping them to see an end to the conflict and crisis in their home country.

I want to speak about a particularly disturbing aspect of this conflict: the use of sexual and gender based violence against Darfurian women and girls. Not only have women been subjected to gross violence when being driven from their homes and villages but it seems they are also not safe in refugee camps, where there are reports of ongoing harassment and extreme violence against women. We must call on all sides of this conflict to end this shocking treatment. It makes you ask: where on earth has our humanity gone? The violence, the fear and the attacks on the most vulnerable must stop. These gross violations of human rights must be stopped, and this motion calls upon the international community to provide extra resolve and resources to do so.

I urge the United Nations to increase the level of aid to the region and ask the Sudanese government to commit to ensuring the safety of aid workers. I commend the African Union mission in Sudan and other groups who work in very strained circumstances. I acknowledge the work they have done in the face of limited resources and immense challenges.

Without a properly resourced peacekeeping force in the region, the conditions for administering aid are becoming just too dangerous. The UN’s most recent humanitarian profile of Darfur states that the accessibility of the population to UN aid workers has dropped dramatically. In January 2006 it had dropped to 72 per cent of the population, which is well below what was achieved in the middle of 2005 and leaves nearly a third of the population without much-needed assistance.

I add my voice to the call for the United Nations to provide peacekeeping forces to the region. This cannot be seen, as is sometimes suggested, as a statement of Western imperialism; it is one of global humanism—more must be done to stem the tide of extensive human suffering caused by this conflict. I also urge the Sudanese government to accept the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to stem this violence in Darfur.

Further, it is imperative that peace negotiations continue, to ensure that an inclusive peace agreement is reached. While I commend the signing of a peace accord in May this year, I remain concerned about its chances of success given that the smaller rebel groups remain outside the process. I fear that there can be no lasting peace in Darfur without an inclusive agreement. Through this issue coming to the attention of the House, I hope that this parliament, our government, the international community and the government of Sudan will all redouble their efforts to do whatever they can to stop this humanitarian crisis from growing to an even greater scale. I commend the motion to the House.

Petro Georgiou (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Cook for moving this motion on Darfur and acknowledge the comments of the member for Gellibrand. She made some very important points which demonstrate that this is a bipartisan issue. From 2003 onwards, the conflict in Darfur has created an immense humanitarian challenge for the world. The military actions of the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias have seen vast outrages committed against the civilians of Darfur. At least 300,000 have died, millions have been displaced and more than 600 villages have been destroyed.

The United Nations holds the government and the Janjaweed forces responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, forced displacement and rape. These waves of violence in Darfur require United Nations action to end the fighting and protect the vulnerable. Efforts thus far to end the violence have been unavailing. The force of fewer than 7,000 African Union peacekeepers currently deployed in Darfur lacks a mandate to prevent violence and finds it difficult to work in the volatile circumstances it faces. This was dramatically illustrated by the capture of 18 African Union personnel by rebels in October last year. The 2004 UN Geneva fundraising conference for the provision of aid raised $US126 million, well short of the stated target of $US236 million. Clearly, more needs to be done both through peacekeeping and through the level of aid.

There is an urgent need for the UN to commit peacekeeping troops to Darfur for the purpose of quelling violence and relieving human suffering. The UN Security Council has just this month unanimously called for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to take over progressively from the African Union peacekeepers. This is a welcome development, but obstacles do remain. It is estimated the UN peacekeepers could not be deployed before September, even if the Sudanese government agreed to cooperate, and UN member states have not yet committed the resources to the proposed force. Meanwhile, appalling crimes are still being committed against ordinary people in Darfur. If the UN is to be a relevant and effective body, member states have to commit the resources that are essential for the United Nations to implement the Security Council resolution.

The United Nations peacekeepers must be supported by United Nations efforts to ensure that maximum cooperation is given to peace negotiations by parties to the conflict. Previous attempts to engineer peace in the region have been unsuccessful. The Sudanese government explicitly excluded guerrillas from Darfur from negotiations that resulted in the January 2005 comprehensive peace agreement. Consequently, while civil war in the south of Sudan ended, conflict in Darfur continued. More recently, the 5 May 2006 peace accord between the Sudanese government and the major rebel force has not brought the killing to an end. In any event, it was rejected by other rebel groups. The UN should move the parties away from temporary tactical ceasefires and towards a long-term peace agreement.

Despite repeated appeals to donors in May, the World Food Program reported that, to date, it has received only $317.8 million, or 42.6 per cent, of the $746 million required to provide food assistance to 6.1 million people in Sudan this year, causing it to reduce rations by half. The World Food Program has been alerting donors, from as early as November 2005, of the urgent need for food assistance to the affected population at the right time and for pre-positioning purposes before the rainy season.

The UN cannot substantially provide the requisite level of aid unless member states provide the resources. I note the member for Cook’s recitation of the aid given to Darfur and the Sudan by the Australian government. I commend the efforts of United Nations officials and non-government organisations in continuing to press national states, the media and the community at large to respond to the plight of the people in Darfur. I wish to make special mention of non-governmental agencies that have been involved in relieving the suffering in the Sudan for keeping the issue at the forefront of international knowledge. I commend the motion to the House. (Time expired)

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find myself again congratulating the member for Cook for his initiative in bringing this motion before the House, which I remember we discussed in February 2005—the same issue, regrettably. Six million African Muslims live in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is a scandal that the genocide persists there and continues to disgrace the international community for our inaction. Estimates of deaths in Darfur range from 200,000 to 400,000. More than two million people have had to flee their homes, with up to half a million now languishing in refugee camps in Chad. More personal reflection on the destruction of the entire lifestyle in Darfur was brilliantly portrayed by Eric Reeves in The New Republic of 5 May this year, when he wrote:

The attacks were comprehensive and revealed a rich understanding of what was most likely to destroy the future ability of African groups to live in Darfur. Irrigation systems were destroyed. Water wells were poisoned with human and animal corpses. Pottery vessels were broken to make carrying water impossible. Food stocks were annihilated. Cattle were killed or looted. Fruit trees were cut down or burned. Agricultural tools were smashed. Mosques or Korans desecrated. Buildings torched. Of course, the people were displaced, raped and killed.

Estimates of how many have died are between 200,000 and 400,000. One of the most deplorable aspects of the Darfur situation is the slow and inadequate response of the international community. The African Union, the Arab League, the European Union, the UN and NATO have all at times considered interventions but, for various reasons, all have failed to make any decisive impact on the situation.

Primary responsibility should rest with the African Union and the Arab League. At least the African Union deserves credit for taking the lead in efforts to restore security to Darfur, but it is poorly resourced and too deeply committed to other trouble spots to enable it to deploy a large enough force. Human Rights Watch has called on the African Union to increase its deployment from 1,500 troops to 12,000 troops. The Arab League has decided to support the Khartoum regime rather than to do anything to help the black Muslim people of Darfur. Human Rights Watch commented recently on the Arab League’s role:

The Arab League has condemned attacks on civilians, but it has remained silent about Sudan’s atrocities in Darfur. Khartoum has used its diplomatic skills to pressure the League into overlooking Sudan’s abuses in Darfur. In 2004, the League dispatched to Darfur its own Commission of Inquiry, which condemned violations of human rights by the militias. But following protests by Sudan, the League downplayed the commission’s findings.

The motion moved by the honourable member for Cook calls on the United Nations to do a variety of things, including deploying peacekeeping forces to Darfur. I wish I could share the honourable member’s optimism that the UN can or will respond in the way it should. It is a sad fact of international affairs today that the unholy alliance of China, Russia and France nearly always stands in the way of any effective action against regimes which grossly abuse human rights. Whether it is in Iran, Belarus, North Korea or Burma, it always seems to be one or all of the three above that help to prop up oppressive regimes and to prevent effective action against them.

In the case of UN Security Council inaction on Darfur, Amnesty International has reported that Russia, China and France are all heavy investors in developing the Sudanese oil industry and are selling arms to the Sudanese regime. The MiG fighter jets which were used to attack Darfur villages in 2003-04 were sold to Sudan by the Russians, who are also building an oil pipeline in Sudan. Amnesty also reports that the French have sold large quantities of military equipment to Sudan in recent years. The French corporation Total holds the rights to an oil concession in southern Sudan. Total is also heavily involved in Burma and has been frequently accused of propping up the Burmese regime for its own commercial interests. And what of China’s role in Darfur? I would like to quote a letter to the Washington Post from Roberta Cohen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute:

China is Sudan’s largest trading partner and the main foreign investor in Sudan’s oil industry. China National Petroleum Corp. has a 40 percent share in the international consortium extracting oil in Sudan, and it is building refineries and pipelines, enabling Sudan to benefit from oil export revenue since 1999.

Although most Western oil companies have withdrawn from Sudan under pressure from human rights organizations, Chinese companies have turned a blind eye to the brutal way in which Sudan forced 200,000 to 300,000 of its citizens from oil-rich lands without compensation. Nor have these companies shown concern that Sudan uses oil revenue to purchase arms for its wars against its black African population.

The prospective Chinese veto at the Security Council is the key factor that has prevented the UN from declaring what is happening in Darfur to be genocide. This policy failure is a poor reflection on that important international organisation.

Like the member for Kooyong, I want to commend a number of international organisations for assisting the oppressed people of Darfur such as Medecins sans Frontieres, Human Rights Watch and others. These organisations have played an important role in preventing the genocide in Darfur. (Time expired)

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to join in this motion on Darfur, but the subject matter is something that appals all members of the House. I congratulate the member for Cook for raising it. Although it is a small part to play in a debate such as this, I think it is important that members of the House continue to focus on the international crisis in Darfur. I congratulate the member for Melbourne Ports on having raised some of the inadequacies in the international community’s response. It is something that Australia, I am proud to say, is playing a very strong part in trying to correct. As members of this House, we need to focus on it and to continue raising our voices against the inadequate response we have seen so far from the world community.

In 2004 the United Nations termed this the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Our effort in Sudan has been quite focused. The signing of a comprehensive peace agreement in January 2005 heralded a cessation in the 21-year-long, north-south civil war in southern Sudan. The civil war in Sudan concerns disputation between the mainly Muslim north and the non-Muslim south and has resulted in a huge death toll, which we have heard about from members.

As I said, Australia has played an important part in endeavouring to get involved by supporting the UN and other missions in Sudan. The current effort is the UN mission in Sudan, for which Australia is providing 15 specialist ADF personnel. With the peace agreement between the government and the main rebel group in place, there is no basis for the government of Sudan to delay and place conditions on a transition. The Australian government has strongly supported two Security Council resolutions—1591 and 1593 of March 2005—which impose an arms embargo and establish a no-fly zone over Darfur. There has also been resolution 1672 of 25 April 2006, which imposes financial and travel sanctions on four individuals because of their activities in Darfur.

We have seen genocide in Darfur. We have seen an incredible tragedy unfolding there, and that is having an impact on the flow of refugees to Australia. We have seen that in my electorate, immediately to the west, in Toowoomba, with a growing Sudanese refugee population. I think it is timely to congratulate the local community on their efforts to accommodate these people and support them.

We have seen articles highlighting some of the problems in Sudan and their ramifications. A recent article in the Bulletin and Newsweek on 11 April this year highlighted the fact that 30,000 black African refugees have settled in Australia since 2000-01 and that the Sudanese have accounted for well over half of these people. The rest is made up of smaller numbers of people from Liberia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Congo and Eritrea. This is a challenge for local communities such as those around Toowoomba and Gatton in my electorate. It is a huge cultural jump for these people, and I pay credit to the Christian and other organisations that are putting such a big effort into supporting them and giving them a new start in our country.

I would like to finish by summing up what has been happening in Sudan. We have seen a divided government in Khartoum and long-term tension and hostilities in Darfur. We have seen uncertainty and unpredictability in the government’s negotiations with the rebels. We have seen political difficulties confronting efforts to influence the Sudanese government and the limited capabilities of anyone involved in the exercise to monitor the force there and to effectively mitigate what is an unfolding crisis. (Time expired)

Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Certainly members on both sides of the House are in screaming agreement with the sentiments expressed in the motion on Darfur. As others have recognised, the honourable member for Cook has raised this issue on many occasions.

The latest statements from the World Food Program, the UN authority dealing with the food crisis, are certainly alarming. Three million people in Darfur and three million others in south and east Sudan are currently having their rations reduced by half. James Morris, the executive director, described this order as ‘one of the hardest decisions’ of his life. It is a season in the year when rains would normally hit, but obviously no food is growing and crops are not available.

Many members have criticised the government of President OmarHasan Ahmad al-Bashir. Even recently it tried to delay an assessment team from entering the region; it refused to respond to their requests. I represent an electorate with a historically very high Sudanese population. I have attended functions celebrating the overall national peace treaty as opposed to what is happening in the Darfur region. I have been very involved with members of my community who were very pleased that the forces of John Garang were able to come to an accommodation.

However, I was impressed by an article very recently in the Guardian Weekly by Jonathan Steele which said that, whilst we have all been very critical—including me—of the actions of the Janjaweed, a militia which has close connections with the Sudanese regime in essentially destroying villages, poisoning wells, raping, taking cattle et cetera, the situation has become somewhat more complex in the last year or so. Even Jack Straw, the former UK foreign minister, urged the rebel forces in Darfur to be more accommodating and reasonable in negotiations. It is interesting to note that, when the Security Council last put international travel bans on four people, two of them, I think for the first occasion, came from rebel forces. In his article, Jonathan Steele made the point:

One-sided international media treatment of the crisis may have emboldened the rebels to increase their demands. In many forgotten conflicts, the TV and commentary spotlights help to sound the alarm and bring pressure for action. In the Darfur case, they could be having a pernicious effect and be delaying the chance of ending the killing.

So, whilst historically there is no doubt about the guilt of the central authorities in Khartoum and their proxy militias, we have to be aware that, in some senses, in recent months there have been some indications of atrocities committed by the rebel forces. We have to try to ensure that there is a balance and a continuing pressure for negotiations. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, said on 16 February in Abuja during negotiations that ‘an end to the haggling and posturing and a start to real action’ was necessary.

There are, of course, a number of issues here. There is the need to expedite the supply of food. The logistics sometimes require many months and transportation costs are incredible. At the moment, it would seem that the Western world has not been supportive enough. Because of a very strong pro-Darfur lobby in the United States, the US has been more proactive in providing foreign aid than they usually are, and that should be recognised. However, whilst we sit here and talk about the food crisis, I think we have to be also mindful of the need for the Western world to act with regard to armaments.

Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.