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Darfur Crisis

The people of Darfur have been victims of some of the most egregious human rights abuses inflicted on anyone, anywhere in the world at any time in recent memory. It is important to recognise the significance and enormity of the suffering that has taken place and not simply jump on to the next stage. Aerial bombing, mass shooting, widespread rape, destruction of crops, theft of livestock, poisoned water supplies, and human beings chained together and burned alive have all been part of the cocktail of barbarity that has scarred the conscience of the world. I intervened on my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr. Mitchell) because some time ago I concluded that genocide versus non-genocide, which is a discussion that could take place about what has transpired in Darfur, is not a semantic debate. It is not simply a matter of the choice of terminology of one individual or another. It is a matter of real significance both because we understand that certain consequences and actions ordinarily are expected to flow from a judgment in international law that genocide has been committed, and because it is important that our moral conscience should be stirred by what has happened. My impression is that the events that have taken place, the calculated and remorseless evil that has been committed in Darfur, does amount to genocide. In those circumstances, and with the best will in the world and recognising the merit of constructive discourse for the purpose of future progress, I find it incredibly difficult simply to take at face value the commitments that have thus far been made. It is especially difficult when those who have entered into those commitments and to whom we were particularly looking for statements and signatures are people who have themselves conspired to commit that genocide. As the Secretary of State will understand, I refer principally to the Government of Sudan. There has been a good deal of consensus among right hon. and hon. Members today, and, in a sense, it is healthy. I do not seek to puncture that for the sake of doing so, and I do not dismiss its merit in total, but it is important to issue this caveat: the present period is simultaneously one of great opportunity and one of supreme danger. I say ““supreme danger”” because in practical terms we must learn from the experience of the past. We are all fond of invoking the importance of learning from past experience, of seeking to develop better practices for the future and of acknowledging the need never again to tolerate genocide and mass slaughter, but what does that mean in practice? Let us think of what took place in Rwanda in 1994. If we are not careful, there could be a direct parallel between the Arusha peace agreement and the present situation. In the end, the Arusha peace agreement was signed and progress towards its implementation was starting to be made, but the extremists were planning the ultimate genocide. In other words, people of thoroughly ill will were planning to use a period in which there was a semblance of good will—and, dare I say it, perhaps accidental complacency—to force through the slaughter that they had in mind. I do not want something similar to happen in Darfur. I mention this—the Secretary of State’s brow is momentarily furrowed—because I am concerned about the scale of the killing that might still be taking place, and it worries me that I cannot get accurate figures.