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

I want to applaud the US government decision to place financial sanctions on 13 individuals and entities responsible for the deaths of 200,000 people and the displacement of two million people in the western region of Sudan, the area of Darfur.

The UN Security Council some months ago passed a very noteworthy resolution forcing the government of Sudan to accept a UN Security Council peace force to separate the government of Sudan’s forces and its murderous militia, the Janjaweed militia, from the innocent people of Sudan, but, unfortunately, things have not progressed very quickly in the meantime. What did President Bush say in moving these financial sanctions?

“I promise this to the people of Darfur: the United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world,” the president said.

“For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians,” the president said. “My administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide.

The recent context for these financial sanctions is that a beleaguered force of 7,000 African Union troops has been unable to stop the fighting in Darfur and neither has a peace agreement signed a year ago between the government and one rebel group. Last November, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir agreed to a three-phase UN plan to strengthen the African troops but has delayed the implementation and backtracked on an agreement for a 23,000-strong UN and African hybrid force to be deployed. In Darfur, if anything, the violence has grown worse. Instead of deploying this UN force immediately, as he was meant to months ago, he has bombed a meeting of religious leaders, kept food from his people and even painted a Sudanese aircraft that was shipping arms to the Janjaweed militia to look like a UN jet.

However, after five months of stalling, the Sudanese President gave the go-ahead for the second phase of the UN deployment to take place—he gave the permission in mid-April. That will enable 3,000 UN troops, police and civilian personnel, along with helicopters and other equipment, to be deployed. The African Union and the UN agreed last Thursday on details of a hybrid force, and UN envoy Jan Eliasson reported progress on getting more than a dozen rebel groups to the negotiating table. These are very welcome developments for the people of Darfur, who, the refugees in my electorate constantly tell me, are still under incredible pressure from the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia.

These sanctions against Sudan step up the enforcement against 100 or so Sudanese companies already barred from doing business in the United States. They add 31 additional companies to the sanctions list, barring them from any dollar transactions in the US financial system. Of those companies, 30 are controlled by the Sudanese government and at least one is violating the UN Security Council’s arms embargo against shipping arms to Darfur.

The sanctions against individuals responsible for the violence include a number of people, including the so-called Sudanese minister for humanitarian affairs, who is one of the people who the UN has said is responsible for the terrible genocide that is happening there and who, in fact, the International Court of Justice, to its great credit, has indicted for crimes against humanity, along with the head of a Janjaweed militia. Also named were military intelligence chief Awad Ibn Auf and Darfur Janjaweed leader Khalil Ibrahim.

The situation in Darfur is one of the most terrible situations that have taken place since the Second World War. As with the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and other places, it is a shame that Australia is not taking stronger action along with other Western countries. I am not suggesting military intervention, although I am very pleased to note that the Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd, has suggested that, if the UN wants some technical assistance—maybe helicopters, maybe a few key personnel—Australia would consider, under a new government, helping that UN force in Darfur. We must take action to see that the murder of hundreds of thousands of people, the destruction of entire villages, and the raping and pillaging of the innocent people of Darfur ceases immediately, and these financial sanctions are a welcome measure. (Time expired)