Turkey  Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister. With Turkey continuing its military offensive against the Kurds in northern Iraq, the Canadian government still has no official policy on the matter. Moreover, as the government embarks on negotiations with Turkey for the sale of CF-5s, Germany is suspending delivery of military materiel destined for Turkey.

Turkey  Speaker, on the ongoing actions of the Turkish government with respect to the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has addressed that in the House and has well established Canada's position on it. With respect to the disposition of the CF-5 fighter planes, it is somewhat premature to discuss this because there is no deal pending.

Turkey  Speaker, in view of the very grave human rights abuses committed by the Turkish government, including its history in Cyprus and the current illegal assault in northern Iraq, will the Prime Minister now explain why the head of the Turkish air force was invited to Canada last month, invited to fly the CF-5 aircraft himself? Will the government finally do the right thing and not only cancel any potential sale of the CF-5s to Turkey but join our NATO ally, Norway, in saying that there will be no arms sales whatsoever to the repressive regime in Turkey?

Human Rights  Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the face of worldwide condemnation of Turkey's invasion of northern Iraq which started last week, what is the Government of Canada doing to stop this invasion, the slaughter and the deportation of thousands of innocent Kurdish people?

Human Rights  He will be pleased to know that last Friday a senior official of the foreign affairs department called in the Ambassador of Turkey to express Canada's concern about the recent actions. It is our hope that the Turkish military forces will remove the troops from northern Iraq and will do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties there. We call on Turkey to respect human rights, but in particular the cultural rights of the Kurdish community in Turkey.

Turkey  Last Friday, the government repeated that Canada was very concerned about the Turkish military offensive against the Kurds in northern Iraq and said that it would meet with the Turkish ambassador regarding the issue. Today, there is every indication that Turkey firmly intends to carry on with its forays. Will the minister confirm whether Canada has indeed raised this issue with other NATO members, as the Minister of National Defence led us to believe last week, and will he tell us what measures Canada and NATO intend to take to make Turkey see reason?

Turkey  Speaker, my supplementary question is also for the Deputy Prime Minister. Since Turkey has clearly indicated its intention to keep troops in the border area with Iraq until a buffer zone is established, does Canada intend to submit this sensitive matter to the UN Security Council?

Turkey  Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister. Kurds in northern Iraq have been under attack for several days by the Turkish air force, supported by 35,000 troops. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees expressed serious concern over the fate of Kurdish civilian refugees.

National Defence  This morning Turkish war planes and 35,000 troops resumed their offensive against the Kurds in northern Iraq. Given the state of tension it is unlikely that Turkey would refuse to use CF-5s in a future campaign regardless of any written guarantee. Will the government live up to its red book promise and refuse to sell arms to any country suspected of human rights violations?

Peacekeeping  They are still there as we debate this issue today. We have been involved in demining and reconstruction in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kuwait, Iraq and Haiti. We have been involved in nation building. We have been involved in embargo enforcement such as in the Persian gulf, the Adriatic and the waters off Haiti, and we have been involved in confidence building through arms control and verification.

Winnipeg Rotary Club  Miss Nancy Lees of Saskatoon and my son, Paul, currently in Ottawa for the week, were Saskatoon delegates representing the country of Iraq. I am pleased to announce they received the award for best prepared delegation at the closing ceremonies last Saturday night. Well done, Saskatoon. One of the best ways to encourage our young people to be full participants in our democratic system is to provide them with opportunities to take part in these simulations: model parliaments, model legislatures and so on.

Foreign Affairs  We can make the parallels with Kuwait and say: "We shouldn't do in Sarajevo, we shouldn't do in Bosnia, we shouldn't do in Gorazde what we did in Iraq". There is no such thing as bad publicity in this case. We know the situation and the suffering is very real. We have an obligation to address that suffering and put aside the platitudes and the rhetoric.

Canadian Foreign Policy  Abuses of human rights such as detention without trial, torture, rape, extrajudicial executions are commonplace and occur in such diverse countries as Iraq, China, Liberia, Brazil, Egypt, El Salvador, Angola and Burundi, just to name a few. My first personal experiences with gross human rights violations came when I was working in Africa in the 1980s.

Canadian Foreign Policy  Predictability is gone and now we have a rise of international, religious and ethnic wars which have plagued us in the past but were suppressed by the cold war. Of course we could talk about examples such as Iran, Iraq, Israel, Ireland, the Baltics, the former Soviet Union and many parts of Africa. We have as well on the scene Zhirinovsky, the wild card, the possible threat to eastern Europe. That must be considered in all of our deliberations, the growing gap between north and south, between rich and poor, and the lack of a real solid superpower or are there other superpowers which are going to rise and become a problem to world peace.

Canadian Foreign Policy  Of course it is understood that the intent is to promote human rights, but as we have seen, selective use can be made of this right. We all saw how quick we were to intervene in Kuwait against Iraq. Why was that? Because there was oil under the desert. In other cases, we were not so quick, in Yugoslavia for example. We had to be reminded often of the horrors happening in Sarajevo before we took slightly more drastic actions.