Sep 08, 2004 - CJCPR demands concrete government action on Darfur.
Vancouver - September 8, 2004. After a meeting with Canada’s Special Envoy to Sudan, Senator Mobina Jaffer, Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region (CJCPR) is urging Prime Minister Paul Martin, the Cabinet, and all Members of Parliament to show leadership and do more to stop the murder, bloodshed, and rape in Darfur that is continuing to force thousands from their homes despite appeals from the international community to the Sudanese government.
“Prime Minister Paul Martin showed great leadership by appointing The Honourable Senator Mobina Jaffer as Canada’s Special Envoy to Sudan. She has assumed the burden of confronting, on behalf of all Canadians, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” said CJCPR Chairman Mark Weintraub. “However, our political leadership, on all levels must now give urgent voice to support her efforts. The Prime Minister, with the support of the entire House of Commons, must follow through by immediately providing the peace keeping and financial support necessary to stop the violence,” he added.
Leaving the meeting with Senator Jaffer, Weintraub referred to commitments made by former Prime Minister Chretien and Prime Minister Martin to make Africa a priority and called upon all appropriate officials and political leadership to demand a public debate of the crisis in Canada and at the United Nations. “Canada must continue to keep this crisis on the public agenda if another Rwanda is to be avoided,” warned Weintraub.
Holocaust survivor Robert Waisman said he finds the Darfur situation outrageous and beyond comprehension. “When I was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp, I was sure that the atrocities I witnessed would never again occur because the world would have learned the lesson. Today there is absolutely no excuse for silence.”
CJCPR is also calling on all citizens to write Prime Minister Martin expressing their concern that Canada is not fully utilizing its international reputation as peacekeepers to support efforts to end the crisis.
A Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region (CJCPR) delegation led by Weintraub and Board Member Sheila Fruman, met Tuesday with Senator Mobina Jaffer to support her efforts. Senator Jaffer assured the delegation that she would continue her efforts for an end to the crisis.
Canadian Jewish Congress, a national organization representing the Jewish community on issues of concern, has been involved in advocacy on religious intolerance in Sudan since 1999.
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Contact:
Erwin Nest, Executive Director
Suite 201-950 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 2N7
Tel: 604-257-5101
Fax: 604-257-5131
E-mail: erwinn@cjc.ca
