Thank you, sir.
As far as the human rights issue brought up by the NDP is concerned, this government stands up for human rights. The examples are many, such as the Air India inquiry, the Maher Arar apology, the Chinese head tax, and the Japanese internment.
I am also perplexed by the comparisons drawn by my colleagues between the Second World War and the current conflict. That was a war between states. It was not a war between a state or NATO versus transnationals and insurgents. That is not a state. The examples of Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan also perplex me.
However, my question is to the Minister of Development. Very quickly, could you confirm for me, madam, that there are 335,000 Afghans benefiting from small loans and that 75% of them happen to be women? There are 10,000 families being fed in Kandahar, reaching 3.4 million for the World Food Programme; and 350,000 children in Kandahar—again, the dangerous area—have been vaccinated against polio...targeting seven million.
My question is to you, madam: after Operation Medusa, what projects, if any, are taking place in Kandahar and the environs? And Minister of Defence, my question to you, sir, is whether the operation to secure Kajaki Dam is a military operation, or is it for the purposes of provincial development?