Mr DANBY (3:33 PM) —I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) reports of many independent observers, including those sent by the African Union, that the so-called Janjaweed militias have carried out numerous massacres, summary executions, rapes, burnings of towns and villages, and forcible depopulations in the Darfur region of western Sudan;

(b) reports by Human Rights Watch that the Sudanese military regime has armed, supported and supervised the militias, and that Sudanese government forces have directly participated in some of these actions;

(c) estimates by reputable sources that at least 300,000 people have already been killed or died as a direct or indirect result of this campaign, that more than a million people have been made homeless, that more than 100,000 have been forced to seek refuge in Chad, and that an unknown but large number of women have been raped in the course of these attacks; and

(d) reports that the militias have destroyed mosques, killed Muslim religious leaders, and desecrated Qurans in the course of their attacks;

(2) condemns the military regime in Sudan for instigating a policy of forcibly depopulating areas considered disloyal to Khartoum and which has led to massive social dislocation and deaths of innocent civilians, in particular, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Darfur;

(3) holds the Sudanese regime responsible for the crimes committed by its armed forces and by the militias under its control;

(4) welcomes the decision by the Australian Government to allocate $20 million for relief in Darfur, but calls on the Government to make a significantly greater commitment to aid the people of Darfur through appropriate international agencies;

(5) notes that UN Security Council Resolution 1556 has imposed an arms embargo on Sudan and authorised the creation of an international protection force for Darfur; and

(6) calls on the Australian Government:

(a) in the event that this force does not succeed in preventing further armed attacks on the people of Darfur, to take immediate action at the United Nations to ensure that the UN force is given a mandate to disarm the militias, secure the withdrawal of Sudanese government forces from the area, protect the people of Darfur and enable all refugees to return to their homes;

(b) to make a contribution, proportionate with Australia's military capacity, of Australian forces to any peace-keeping force dispatched to Sudan under a United Nations mandate; and

(c) to take action at the United Nations to secure the prosecution for war crimes at the appropriate international tribunal of President Omar Bashir and other officials of the Sudanese military regime responsible for the massacres of civilians in Darfur.

I thank the House for the opportunity to raise this important motion. It appears that 30,000 to 50,000 people have already died in the desperate situation in the Darfur region in Sudan. Since I submitted this motion for consideration last month the situation has, if anything, grown worse. Let me quote what CNN's chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, reported today:

That is a quote from someone on the spot at the moment. When we hear of hundreds of thousands of people dying it is usually in connection with some natural disaster such as an earthquake or a famine, but what is happening in Darfur is not a natural disaster; it is an entirely man-made catastrophe being brought about by the Islamist dictatorship of General Bashir in the Sudan.

Many members will know that there has been a long-running secessionist movement in south and south-western Sudan, which is mainly black African and Christian, seeking independence or autonomy from the mainly Arab north. Now the military regime in Khartoum has decided to bring this matter to a head by launching a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing against the peoples of the Darfur region. The so-called Janjaweed militias are being used as a cover by the Sudanese government for its activities, but reliable reports make it clear that the government itself has planned and instigated attacks. People have testified to Amnesty that Sudanese Antinov aircraft have dropped bombs on columns of people leaving villages and that the Sudanese air force has participated in direct attacks on people in the Darfur region.

As the motion I have moved notes, as many as 30,000 people have already been killed and about one million have been forced to flee their homes. Several hundred thousand have fled to Chad, a very poor country which cannot afford to support these refugees. They are currently in squalid camps and in immediate danger of starvation and disease, as we can see on any of the channels that are beaming into Parliament House this afternoon. But they are the lucky people of Darfur because at least they can be reached by international aid. Perhaps half a million people have been displaced inside Sudan and no-one really knows what is happening to these people. Clearly the Sudanese regime wants all these people either dead or driven from the country, and so far the regime is being allowed to get away with, quite literally, murder on a massive scale.

It is only a few months since this House marked the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, where nearly a million people were killed, when the United Nations and the international community did little. I am pleased to see that, perhaps as a result of the international concern over that experience, we seem to have learned some lessons. The UN Security Council and the Secretary General have been very active in demanding that Sudan disarm the militias and prevent further attacks on civilians in Darfur, and have threatened sanctions if the demands are not met. The African Union, to its credit, has taken a similar stand, and France and Nigeria have dispatched troops to Chad where it borders Sudan.

I note the Arab League has said that they will dispatch troops rather than have British or American troops in that area, but clearly more is needed if a disaster on the scale of Rwanda is to be prevented in Darfur. The Sudanese regime, and General Bashir personally, must be told that the most serious consequences will befall them if they fail to stop immediately their campaign of genocide in Darfur. Large-scale humanitarian aid must be dispatched at once, followed by a peace-keeping force with the power to enter Sudan and rescue the people of Darfur if necessary. I think it is quite understandable that the Arab League would prefer to set its own house in order rather than have outsiders come and do it.

I do not move this motion in any partisan spirit. I note that the Australian government has announced $12 million in relief funding for the people in camps in Chad, and I welcome that. I note that the government has indicated its willingness to contribute to a peacekeeping force, and I welcome that too. But I think we all need to understand both the scale and the urgency of this crisis. I also note that there are many government members who will speak in favour of this motion. We are talking about up to a million people being in immediate danger of death. If the invasion of Iraq was justified after the fact by the doctrine of pre-emptive humanitarian intervention, as the government now maintains, then I would like to know why very firm action against the regime of Sudan cannot be justified on the same grounds. I am not arguing in favour of armed intervention, but sanctions and other things must be contemplated in a month or so when the UN Security Council considers these matters. (Time expired)

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Jenkins)—Is the motion seconded?

Dr Lawrence —I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.