Canadian MPs call for more help for Darfur

April 6, 2006 (OTTAWA) — Government and opposition MPs are calling on Canada and other countries to provide more help to the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

Liberal Irwin Cotler says a genocide is occurring in the African country and the international community must step up its efforts to intervene.

Fellow Liberal MP Keith Martin says the United Nations should take over the peacekeeping mission from the African Union, and thousands of peacekeepers should be put on the ground.

Conservative James Lunney says the international community ignored the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s and must take action in Darfur.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the government is considering the situation in Darfur along with Canada’s allies, but the Sudanese government has in the past turned down intervention by non-African troops.

Canada already has equipment and a few dozen military advisers in Africa assisting the effort to end the killing in Darfur, where tens of thousands have died in fighting between rebel and the Sudanese government.

(ST/AP)