Statement in the Parliament of Canada, February 16, 2001, concerning the legislative imperative to respond to oil development in Sudan.
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Statement from Mr. Irwin Cotler (Mount Royal/Liberal Party):
“Mr. Speaker, oil development in the Sudan may not be a cause of one of the most deadly killing fields in the world, where two million have died and four million internally displaced, but it is certainly a catalyst, if not a condition, for its continuance and the obstacle to any peace.
Indeed, Sudan has not only used its oil revenue to double its military expenditures in the last two years, while using scorched earth warfare to secure the oil fields, but it has breached its promise to Canada, and the international community, to increase vital investments in agriculture and food security.
Rather, the warfare exposes its people to more depopulation, more human misery and more killing. There has been a warning from the United Nations of a war induced famine and a genocide warning from the Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocaust Museum.
Canada must use its good offices to press the Sudanese government to cease and desist from its scorched earth policy, to negotiate peace in good faith and to provide its people with food rather than target them with oil generated weapons.
We in this place must explore the legislative means.”