Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Belik, I read in Cyberpresse the article entitled "War does not lead soldiers to suicide". It says in this article that you did not find any increased risk of suicide among soldiers who were deployed as combatants or as peacekeepers. We know of course that the peacekeepers did not have a military mission and did not have the right to use their weapons. Nevertheless some of these soldiers went through certain things in these countries, for instance some of them witnessed rapes and could not intervene, and some of them committed suicide a few years later.
Which leads me to talk about our soldiers who are now deployed in Afghanistan. In the same article it says:
The risk doubles if the soldier witnessed "atrocities", it triples among those who caused accidental deaths, and quadruples among those who killed or injured someone intentionally, for instance by using their weapon in a war zone.
We know that very often soldiers do not have suicidal tendencies when they return from the theatre of operations, but a few years later.
In light of your expertise, I would like to know what recommendations you could make for our veterans. How can we ensure that people who have been in a theatre of operations and witnessed atrocities and all sorts of things, who killed people, can be the object of follow-up, since, as you said, in those particular cases, the risk of suicide can be two, three, or four times greater?
