Eugene links to this new story from the "London [Ont.] Free Press"...
Pressure by young people helped end the Vietnam war 30 years ago and today it can stop genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, students at the University of Western Ontario were told yesterday [Sunday].
Edmonton MP David Kilgour, a former Liberal now sitting as an independent, urged an audience of nearly 150 people to lobby MPs to have Canada push for NATO intervention in the civil-war ravaged region where the death toll exceeds
Kilgour has lobbied Prime Minister Paul Martin to increase aid for Darfur in exchange for Kilgour's support for the minority Liberal government.
"This works particularly well in a minority government in an election year," he said on the third day of a conference considering the ongoing crisis in Darfur.
Kilgour recommended personal visits to the offices of MPs, letters, e-mails, phone calls and other means to push Canada's political leaders into action.
He said Canada should use its good standing with African nations to persuade them that they have been ineffective in stopping the Sudan government-backed killing of Africans in Darfur and NATO must be called.
His call for activism was echoed by a woman in the audience who fled the country four years ago.
"What we are doing is not enough," Tragi Mustafa told the crowd. "The crisis is getting worse."
The killings and rapes are a daily fact of life in her native land, she said.
Owners of four-wheel-drive vehicles are being slain and the vehicles stolen by the government-backed militia to help them wage their attacks in more-rugged areas, Mustafa said.
She said the United Nations claims there is no need for help in Darfur, but it is wrong.
Canadians must push the federal government to act and the ears of sympathetic politicians must be found and filled, Mustafa said.
"The election is coming in Canada and we need to use our power to talk to the best people."
Participants in the conference, which drew 300, were also told the United Nations should establish a new emergency service with standing troops ready for immediate deployment in emergencies. Politics professor Peter Langille of Western said the current system, where member countries must be persuaded to provide troops for UN missions, is too slow because those countries often wait to assess internal political pressure before acting.
"We see routine delays instead of rapid deployment," he said.
John Weiss, a history professor at Cornell University, said activists committed to stopping the genocide should consider hiring lobbyists because Sudan has done so to pressure American and Canadian politicians to steer clear of the conflict.
Comments