Mr. Speaker, we have made considerable progress. Of course, we would have liked to have had our soldiers out of Srebrenica by the end of February. Dutch soldiers arrived as expected; 500 of them are in theatre and Canadian troops are preparing to withdraw. Trucks are currently on route to Srebrenica. Bosnian Serbs have expressed some reservations, arguing that the roads were not very passable. Nevertheless, we believe that our troops will be able to leave within a few days.
Admittedly, they are several days behind schedule, but the operation is proceeding as expected. As for the rumour reported in the weekend newspapers to the effect that some demonstrations had taken place and that Srebrenica's Muslims were holding Canadian soldiers hostage, there is no truth to it. Muslims were merely staging a demonstration to thank Canadian soldiers for having protected them so valiantly during the past two years.