Mr. Speaker, before starting my speech, I would like to respond to my colleague from Rosedale. According to him, the Leader of the Opposition said that he was not proud of Canadian troops. I am sorry but the hon. member for Rosedale is distorting the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition.
My colleagues and I heard the speech delivered by the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean. He is a responsible man. He is more concerned about the living conditions of Canadian troops on peacekeeping missions. He is also concerned about the measures taken after they return home. He is concerned about the problem of suicide among Canadian troops. I wish to set the record straight: he is an honest and responsible man whom we all hold in high esteem.
It is with great sadness and emotion that I will, in this debate, try to paint a rather grim picture of the situation in the former Yugoslavia. Zvornik, Srebrenica, Bratunac and Grobnica were the sites of massacres in which up to 3,000 civilians were killed. The Omarska camp was the site of mass executions and torture. At the Celebici camp, at least 15 Serbs were beaten to death last August. An individual called Borislav Herak killed 230 anonymous civilians. Last August, 50 Serbian women and children were killed by two Croatian members of paramilitary forces.
In Varjanta, more than 200 Muslims were massacred by the Serbian police. In May and June, between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslims were murdered by Serbian irregulars in a pig farm and factory near Brcko. Countless Muslim women were raped by Croatians.
That is the other side of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. That is the reality sometimes obscured by the rhetoric. That is, however, why our troops are serving with the UN.
How did it come to that? How did the situation deteriorate to this extent, as is often the case in armed conflicts, with innocent civilians being massacred, women raped, ethnic cleansing? I have no desire to set myself as a strategy expert nor do I claim to be. My main concern this evening and the most serious aspect of this conflict, in my view, is the impact on civilians and on our troops.
Coming back to the loss of human rights issue, here is some background information. It should be pointed out that all protagonists in the conflict have violated the rights of their minorities from the beginning. I would like to read from a document produced by the Canadian government. It reads:
"When the federal republic crumbled, the Serbs wanted to make sure that their people would remain together within the same territory. That is why they tried to spread their domination to regions where large ethnic minorities live as well as to new States run by non-Serbs. Other groups, such as the Croatians and the Muslims, wanted to consolidate their position in the new States by depriving other ethnic minorities, including the Serbs, of their rights".
The ethnic cleansing sought by both sides led to murders, rapes, torture and other forms of intimidation aimed at making the members of particular ethnic groups flee their homes and villages and take refuge in the zones claimed by other ethnic groups. Such attempts to achieve ethnic cleansing have had tragic consequences: over 100,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands injured; thousands of Muslim women raped; and three million people displaced or forced to take refuge in neighbouring countries, without mentionning the acts of torture, the illegal arrests and the arbitrary detentions.
Let me discuss for a moment the impact of those rapes, particularly in the context of Muslim society. It has been reported in the media that women who are raped by men from other ethnic origins must often face reprisals from their own families. Almost a whole generation of women was sacrificed. Indeed, in addition to the physical and psychological trauma with which these women have to deal, their whole families and
social lives were shattered. The scope of this tragedy leaves us at a loss for words.
It is to help the civilian population that the UN forces were deployed in that region. Peace is the most precious thing for any nation. The right to life and to one's physical integrity is the most treasured one. The international community, through the UN, felt an obligation to maintain peace, in spite of the enormous financial and military costs involved. Canada made a contribution from the very beginning and decided to pursue its commitment, although with some reservations and doubts. We agree and we have no choice. Indeed, the consequences of a withdrawal of the UN forces would be tragic for the population. The attacks would start all over again. We know that as recently as last week, there were 14 outbreaks of armed conflict in Bosnia.
Genocide would resume, and help would no longer reach the various communities, with consequences one can well imagine. However, we must also consider the impact of these operations on each individual member of our peacekeeping forces. It seems that in some cases, the impact is considerable. Some problems have already been identified. There is of course the conditions in the field which may have an impact on physical health. And there are also conditions we could qualify as environmental, like bombings, hostage takings, the hostility of part of the population and armed attacks intended to threaten and humiliate the soldiers.
What is most traumatic is being powerless to intervene pro-actively in the face of so much horror. There is also the daily confrontation with human misery, with the very visible impact of war on the civilian population. There is fear and boredom. That was also the point my leader, the leader of the opposition was trying to make.
All these factors contribute, to a greater or lesser degree, to the deterioration of the physical, psychological and mental health of our peacekeepers. A number of questions come to mind. First of all, were they given adequate preparation and training before they left? Second, was there a proper evaluation of the tasks they would be given so they would have a better idea of what they could expect? When they return, do they have access to the support and services they need to resume a "normal" life as members of their community? Apparently not, since it was found that among peacekeepers and their friends, the suicide rate was higher than average.
These are all issues that must be addressed if we want our involvement in peacekeeping missions to be humanitarian for those who are on the receiving end and for those who go on these missions. I deplore the fact that this government failed to table a statement describing the conditions under which our soldiers have exercised their peacekeeping mandate so far. We are faced with a fait accompli. Our answer to the government's request to renew the peacekeeping mandate of the Canadian forces is yes, but.