Did I ever tell you Federal Parliament is a joke?

Despite the Prime Minister’s total apathy towards the world’s greatest current humanitarian crisis, the Government hasn’t been totally quiet on Darfur. DFAT announced on September 1 an additional $5 million in food aid for Darfur, and $510,000 to Austcare for “protection officers who will work with United Nations agencies increasing security for civilians in internally displaced person camps in both Darfur and southern Sudan.”

Bruce Baird is one of the better Liberal MP’s in the House of Reps. The member for Cook (which includes Cronulla within its boundaries), chairman of the Amnesty International Parliamentary Group and a committed Anglican, Baird has a social conscience the likes of which his colleague, the member for Bennelong, could never comprehend. On May 29 Baird introduced a motion to the House of Reps as private member’s business:

That this House calls on the United Nations to:

(1) substantially increase the level of aid to the Darfur region of the Sudan;
(2) call upon member nations to provide peacekeeping forces to quell the civil war currently taking place in the country;
(3) lift the profile of this catastrophic situation that confronts Darfur and the conflict which has already claimed 300,000 lives and seen 2.4 million people displaced;
(4) work effectively with the NGOs to ensure a substantial lift in the level of privately sourced aid going to the region; and
(5) ensure that maximum cooperation is given to peace negotiations.

Thirty minutes allotted for six speakers with a maximum of five minutes each: Baird, shadow Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, Petro Georgiou, Michael Danby, Cameron Thompson, and Laurie Ferguson. All totally in support. And then, as is normal procedure:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Barresi)—Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

You guessed it. The debate hasn’t resumed. It might. Do a word search for “darfur” on this page and see how far down the queue it is.

There’s been a couple of mentions of Darfur in Federal Parliament since that debate. Last Thursday (September 14) in the Senate, Helen Coonan outlined Government policy on the possibility of sending peacekeepers in relation to UN Resolution 1708. She at least has a better grasp on events than did her Liberal stablemate Senator Marise Payne on June 21. Poor Senator Payne thinks Darfur is in the south of Sudan.

Today, September 17, has been declared a Global Day of Action for Darfur. dayfordarfur.org tells us that the day “was originally conceived by a group of NGOs working on Darfur and concerned about the slow response of the international community to the crisis”.

It’s also the first anniversary of the signing of the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document. Of particular relevance here are paragraphs 138 and 139:

Responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity

138. Each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. This
responsibility entails the prevention of such crimes, including their incitement, through appropriate and necessary means. We accept that responsibility and will act in accordance with it. The international community should, as appropriate, encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility and support the United Nations in establishing an early warning capability.

139. The international community, through the United Nations, also has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter, to help to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In this context, we are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, including Chapter VII, on a case-by-case basis and in cooperation with relevant regional organizations as appropriate, should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. We stress the need for the General Assembly to continue consideration of the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and its implications, bearing in mind the principles of the Charter and international law. We also intend to commit ourselves, as necessary and appropriate, to helping States build capacity to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and to assisting those which are under stress before crises and conflicts break out.

So what are we doing about it? Damn little. An obscenely small amount. Mary Liddell in today’s Observer summarises the situation:

The African Union’s 7,000 peacekeepers, feeble, underfunded and unwelcome, are leaving in a fortnight. Sudan’s leader, Omar al-Bashir, refuses to accept the 20,000 replacement force mandated by the United Nations. The resulting security vacuum would force out aid workers, condemning to death many of the 2.5 million who depend on them. It would also let Bashir unleash a military solution to a three-year conflict that has killed 300,000 people and left 2 million homeless; 10,000 Sudanese troops are massing to take on the rebels.

A good centralised resource page for information and action about the situation in Darfur can be found at the excellent International Crisis Group website.

As for John Winston Howard, he still registers a nil return for mentions of “Darfur” either in Hansard or in transcripts available on the Prime Ministerial website. But then, he never was big on humanitarian issues, was he?

I’ll post about the Australian political activity in relation to Darfur in a separate item. I’ll finish this post with a prayer, published by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, on Friday:

Heavenly Father,

We pray for those whose lives are lived on the margins of nations and suffer from the wars that others fight around them. We pray for the warring factions, that they may see themselves under the gaze of God and those who suffer for their cause. We pray for the peoples of Darfur who are haunted by fear of violence, hunger and hopelessness, that they may continue to be fed, visited and defended. We pray for the work of peacekeepers, negotiators and the humanitarian organisations that security may prevail. We pray for the Government of Sudan and for her unity. We pray for peace in the name of him who is the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

It has been eleven months since I posted my last report - in actual fact, a nil return - of John Winston Howard’s public references to Darfur.

Nothing has changed in that regard. Disappointingly, I can only find one reference to “Darfur” in Federal Parliament since the start of this year, a speech in the adjournment debate of the House of Reps on February 28 by Liberal MP Louise Markus, whose electorate in the Blacktown area is home to a large number of Sudanese refugees. Ms Markus took to task an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph.

Our Immigration Department and its parade of incompetent ministers have copped some bad press, quite rightly, over recent years, but to their credit they have admitted more than 10,000 Sudanese refugees over the past three years. According to DIMIA figures (PDF), in the six months to the end of 2005, a total of 2026 Sudanese settlers arrived in Australia - that’s out of a total of 65,804 from all nations. In the 2004-05 financial year, 5572 Sudanese arrived in Australia under humanitarian settlement programs, and that’s 42% of all humanitarian admissions for that year.

If we’ve done well in accepting Sudanese seeking asylum here, we haven’t been quite so forthcoming in helping to make their homeland more peaceful. We still have the grand total of fifteen (15) Australian Defence Force personnel with the UN Mission in Sudan. Enough for a rugby team without reserves.

We could do a lot better with foreign aid too. According to AusAID’s summary of Australia’s Overseas Aid Program 2005-06, a total of $77 million was projected for aid programs for the whole of Africa. A sub-total for Sudan was not given. Overall, Australia’s ODA (Official Developmental Assistance) for the 2005-06 year was projected at just under $2.5 billion. That’s a total of 0.28% of Gross National Income.

How can we get Little Johnnie to take an interest in this major humanitarian calamity? (And here, by the way, is the latest from IRIN about the African Union’s peace talks. The April 30 deadline has come and gone but the AU has given a 48 hour extension.)

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is the deployment of 15 troops to Sudan a preliminary deployment? Are there going to be more?

PRIME MINISTER: Well I wouldn�t rule out more but equally by saying that I�m not concealing the fact that we have already decided to send more. You get my meaning? You�ve got to be careful with these things.

- Press conference, Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, 20.4.05

This is the only reference I can find of John Winston Howard discussing the crisis in Sudan anywhere over the past twelve months. And that piece of doublespeak only when a reporter brought it up. A search for “darfur” on either the Prime Ministerial website or under speeches etc by Howard in Federal Parliament comes up blank.

And yes, the Australian Government has contributed a massive 15 troops to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan. Here’s the press release from April 20 issued by Defence Minister Senator Robert “it was an interview not an interrogation” Hill and Global Village Idiot Alexander Downer. (And the bipartisan support from the ALP.)

Our Prime Minister does so much (or, in reality, so little) that we as Australians have every right to be ashamed about. His apathy towards the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is but one of them.

The news of Dan (”Ted Baxter”) Rather’s impending retirement from the CBS Evening News has been headline news in itself, especially coming so soon after the botched report of GWB’s national guard dodge. This coming less than a week before the retirement of Tom (”Ted Baxter”) Brokaw from the NBC Nightly News. Peter (”Ted Baxter”) Jennings continues to hold the fort at ABC The World Tonight. I hope Walter (”Walter Cronkite“) Cronkite is enjoying his retirement.

Anyway, it was good to see Rather’s CBS frontline contemporary from the good old days, Marvin Kalb, discussing The Big Dan Rather Story on CNN Newsnight earlier this afternoon.

All of which leads me to two articles published this week discussing the mainstream US media’s flagrant ignorance of genuine international news.

“Looking away as a tragedy unfolds” by Dick Rogers appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle last Sunday. Sudan, Rogers writes, has been the subject of 65 reports in the Chronicle this year, 23 of those being briefs. The tragedies of Darfur have made the front page just three times. In contrast, Barry Bonds was the subject of 14 page one stories, the Scott Peterson murder case 36.

As Rogers puts it:

One lesson of Rwanda, site of another African genocide, is that much of
the world was allowed to look away. Newspapers, this one included, should
apply that lesson in Sudan.

Meanwhile, the IPS news agency dumped on the US media’s coverage of the Americas’ defence ministers’ conference in Quito. Jim Lobe’s analysis piece published yesterday entitled “U.S. Media Miss Rumsfeld’s ‘Dirty Wars’ Talk” puts us in the picture.

Still, there is always the brilliant and almost unseen Democracy Now!

John Howard has an extensive archive of transcripts of interviews, press releases and other statements on his Prime Ministerial website, www.pm.gov.au. Considering his keen interest in
international affairs, as evidenced with Iraq, I decided I would do a search of his website to see how often he has discussed the tragic situation in the Sudanese province of Darfur.

My search for “Darfur” on the PM’s website came up with no matches. Searching Hansard on the Parlinfo website also drew a blank.

It’s the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis of the present day. More than a million people homeless as the result of civil war and ethnic cleansing (which may well have been government-sponsored), tens of thousands dead. Our Prime Minister has apparently had nothing to say about the tragedy of Darfur.

Just as disturbingly, no one in the media appears to have asked him.

Visiting the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer’s website provides the barest amount of joy in discovering that Australia is taking some action. On 17 May 2004 Mr Downer’s office announced that the Government would provide $5 million in aid to help meet the immediate needs of the displaced persons of Darfur. That contribution was made in response to a revised United Nations Consolidated Appeal.

Another $3 million was allocated by the Government on 18 June 2004 for emergency humaritarian assistance for Sudanese in refugee camps in eastern Chad. (source: AusAID, the Australian Agency for International Development).

Eight million dollars. That’s 40 cents per head of Australia’s population. And compare that to the approximately $105 million that the Government is spending on advertising its “initiatives” prior to the coming election.

The extent of the cluelessness of the Federal Government over the Darfur situation can be seen by this exchange in the Senate on 17 June 2004 between Senator Bob Brown of the Greens and Defence Minister Senator Robert Hill (source: Hansard):

Senator BROWN (2.44 p.m.) –My question is to Senator Hill, representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I ask about the ethnic cleansing taking place in Darfur in Sudan. What action has the Australian government taken– either unilaterally or through global agencies such as the UN–for immediate intervention to stop the slaughter that is occurring in Darfur? Will the government consider the advice of a former US Assistant Secretary of State, Susan Rice, that there should be immediate international pressure through the United Nations, including an oil embargo on Khartoum, until this potential genocide is brought to a halt?

Senator Lightfoot –We would like to parachute you in there, Senator Brown.

Senator BROWN –I object to that interjection on this matter.

The PRESIDENT –I am sorry, I did not hear that interjection.

Senator BROWN –I ask you to consider that interjection and to deal with it.

The PRESIDENT –I cannot consider what I did not hear, but I will review the Hansard.

Senator HILL –Obviously, I want to refer the question to the foreign minister in relation to any specific action he might have taken, but I can say in general terms that there have been good stories and bad stories coming out of Sudan in the last few months. The good story is that it looks as if there may be a conclusion to the horrible civil war that has lasted for so long and that has resulted in literally millions of deaths–and there has been the contribution of the international community in bringing that to an end. The efforts that have been made and the efforts that are being made by the United Nations to consolidate that peace are to be applauded. On the other hand, there have been the bad stories of the abuses in Darfur that have also been in the press in recent times. You obviously must feel great sympathy for the Sudanese as they go from one crisis to another. Exactly how the international community as a whole is responding, I am not sure. Obviously there is not a response that Australia can take as an individual party that is going to make a significant difference, but I would hope that, as part of an international community, every influence is being brought to bear to bring that brutality to an end. I will seek the details of that from the foreign minister.

Senator BROWN — Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I am surprised at the minister’s lack of information on Australian initiatives on what is described by the United Nations as the world’s greatest humanitarian catastrophe. Given the gravity of the situation, I ask the minister to check that Australia cannot act on this by, for example, moving urgently in the United Nations for a United Nations response which involves potentially an oil embargo and an air flight embargo on US military planes bombing villages before the people are slaughtered by the Arab Janjaweed militia which is being funded and supported from Khartoum. I ask the minister whether the government will go into action on what is the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis at the moment and see what unilateral action it can take by stimulating the United Nations into action. (Time expired)

Senator HILL –I think it is fair to say that the UN is able to play a peacekeeping, rebuilding role, but it has not been particularly effective in intervening in such circumstances and bringing the violence to an end. The international community has looked to coalitions of the willing to do that, and in nearly every case it has expected that coalition to be led by the United States. Most of the international community does expect the US to do the heavy lifting. When the US does that, what appreciation does it get? It continually gets pounded by such as Senator Brown because it will never meet his standards.

Senator Brown –Mr President, I raise a point of order on relevance. The one-minute answer here should be addressing the question of what the Australian government is doing on this matter.

The PRESIDENT –I cannot direct a minister how to answer a question. He has 17 seconds remaining; if he wishes to avail himself of that time, he can.

Senator HILL –If Senator Brown is calling for some form of pre-emptive strike based on humanitarian grounds, I would be interested to hear him actually say that. That would be very interesting. There is this debate in the international community on the right to intervene militarily on humanitarian grounds. Simply cutting off fuel to Khartoum is going to hurt the poor as much as– (Time expired)

The additional three million dollars was forthcoming from the Government the day after this hapless performance from Senator Hill.

In fairness, it is worth adding that the Australian Labor Party’s website (www.alp.org.au) also draws a blank on Darfur, as does shadow foreign minister Kevin Rudd’s (www.kevinrudd.com).

Senator Brown of the Greens issued two statements on the matter, the first on June 17 after his questioning of Senator Hill in Parliament, and the second on June 23.

See also Alexander Downer’s interview by Jon Snow of Channel 4 in the UK on 5 July 2004.

(Postscript: The ALP issued a press release by Kevin Rudd later in the day on July 21, after I wrote this article, calling on the Government to take action in the Sudan, and calling the existing $8 million committment “inadequate”.