Page 2807 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 October 1992
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I remember the day I met the former Ugandan ambassador, who managed to get sent to this country when Idi Amin was running Uganda. I am sure that many people in this house know him, his wife Sonya, and John. He was very grateful to get out of that country and to be able to bring his family with him. One night, over dinner he told us the most horrifying stories. The only way he could get out of the country was to ask to be Idi Amin's doctor, and to talk Idi Amin into sending him here as ambassador. Once he got here, his great joy was to be able to become a citizen of this country. He told the story of how Idi Amin cut off the head of one of his generals, because the general had not agreed with him, and placed it in his fridge so that he could look at it each day. I gather that things have not changed very much in that country. People are disappearing, and they still do not have very many rights. We heard from Mr Humphries how soldiers are shot because they do not agree with the people running the country.
The plight of the people in Uganda is the responsibility of those of us who live in a free and independent nation. The world is a shrinking place. We can no longer separate ourselves from our fellow men and women who are suffering from the lack of what we have come to take for granted, no matter what their race, religion or colour. I have always had a saying: Nice people come in all colours, races and religions. We must unite against the oppression of those people wherever and whenever it occurs. It is our duty as a fortunate nation to alert all to this tragedy that we see happening.
Madam Speaker, I think it would be fitting for this Assembly to have a minute's silence to remember all those who have fallen, not only in Uganda but around the globe, due to the atrocities of the men who control these countries. As Robbie Burns said:
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
A minute's silence would enable us to ponder over what has happened to people around the world because they have not agreed with a government that has either taken over their country or managed to institute a fraudulent voting system, thereby depriving people of the right to put into power the government of their choice. We all know that in many of these countries ballot-boxes disappear and people are killed because they wish to have the right to vote for the party of their choice.
We are shocked when business fraud is committed in this country. In countries all around the world people do not have rights. Ballot-boxes disappear and votes are changed to put a government into power. I think it would be fitting for the Assembly to have a minute's silence to remember all those who have fallen, not only in Uganda but in all the countries of the world.
MR STEVENSON (11.22): I support fully human rights. I have often worked in Australia and in England for human rights. I absolutely support the proposition that the Ugandan Government should support human rights. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why they should not fully implement the rights mentioned in treaties. There is no reason whatsoever why they should not submit reports to anyone they so choose. However, I implacably stand against United Nations and other international treaties that would destroy the sovereign rights of individuals; that would destroy the rights of individuals to determine what happens in
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