Mia Farrow urges Canada, world to act in Darfur

Actress Mia Farrow says Canada and the rest of the world are failing the children of Darfur.

Farrow said the world has come to expect Canada to be the first to defend and protect the world's poor and dispossessed.

But "there has been a silence from Canada," Farrow told reporters after her speech Friday at the Millennium Summit, a gathering aimed at promoting peace and reducing povertythroughout the world.

"Perhaps Stephen Harper has not stood up in the way that he could," the actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador said of the prime minister.

"He is not alone. All of the nations of the world have failed the people of Darfur."

The United Nations estimates at least 200,000 people have been killed in ethnic fighting in Darfur, a region of Sudan.

The actress called the situation a modern-day Holocaust and urged political leaders in Canada and around the world to take action.

She said nearly four years have passed since the UN recognized the crisis in Darfur, yet nothing has been done to stop it.

"What does that say about us?" she askedafter showing the thousands attending the conference a photo slide show ofher seven trips to the area.

"Where is our responsibility for each other?"

The lineup for the summit also included Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, actor Michael Douglas and former prime minister Paul Martin.

Tutu recounted some of the world's horrors for the crowd, from ethnic cleansing in Bosnia to the genocide in Rwanda and the current epidemic of HIV-AIDS that is devastating sub-Saharan Africa.

"You wonder what has happened to us human beings that we can do such dastardly acts," said Tutu.

Asmall fraction of what is being spent on the military could feed the world's children and ensure them a proper education, he said.

But overall, his message was one of hope, where each person can make a difference.