Mr. Speaker, first to provide further explanation, the mission of Ambassador Chrétien is being fully supported by a number of Canadian diplomats in our missions in the African area. As well, we are providing a support service here and logistical support.
In addition, as I mentioned, our secretary of state has just returned from Africa where she met with a number of African states and we intend to follow through with any form of available assistance we might provide if there is to be some form of decision to allow for safe corridors.
Last week the Minister for International Co-operation and I announced a new strategy for the Government of Canada and the Canadian people, what we call peacebuilding. It will allow us to mobilize Canadian resources of a variety of kinds, to fit themselves into areas of post-conflict where there is turmoil and disruption taking place. It is a kind of civilian peacekeeping operation which will allow us to have a rapid response so that we do not continue to suffer the kinds of tragedies that we have seen in Rwanda, Burundi or Zaire.
We have to be able to develop new mechanisms to respond to these new realities and we are taking the lead in our own country and promoting the idea of peacebuilding in international organizations.