By: Bhupinder S. Liddar.
OTTAWA: Canadian Parliamentarians should be more concerned about human rights violations, according to Liberal MP Harbance Singh Dhaliwal.
Dhaliwal was speaking on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at a seminar on human rights violations in Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Also speaking to Parliamentarians, their staff, members of non-governmental organizations and the media was former New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent, who is now the Presi dent of the Montreal based International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development, In his presentation, Broadbent called for the release of the democratically elected opposition Ms., Aung San Suu Kyi. He also called for international pressure to be applied on the current military dictatorship and the need for Canadian Parliamentarians to support resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly condemning the military regime. Dhaliwal stated that he was prompted to arrange the seminar ‘on Burma after meeting Dr. Sein Win, the exiled Prime Minister of the National Coalition Government of Myanmar on June7 of this year. The Vancouver South Liberal MP, who last month questioned the visiting India’s Home Affairs Minister Chavan on the human rights situation in the Punjab, stated that “thousands of innocent people have been killed by the Burmese Amy and thousands more continue to live in fear of death, many of these crimes have gone almost unnoticed by the global community.
In September Dhaliwal made a statement in the House of Commons urging Canadian Parliamentarians “to support a motion urging the United Nations General Assembly to condemn the current Burmese military regime and restore democracy to Burma.”
Article extracted from this publication >> December 9, 1994
