Human Rights: Burma Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
John Pugh
Main Page: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)Department Debates - View all John Pugh's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Human Rights: Burma
John Pugh Excerpts(7 years, 3 months ago)
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John Pugh (Southport) (LD)
In response to a written question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake), the Foreign Office revealed that it had spent £300,000 and more on training the Burmese army. Would that money not be better spent on exposing and verifying human rights violations?
Alok Sharma
This question has come up before, but I can again confirm to the hon. Gentleman that the Ministry of Defence does not provide combat training. The UK is providing educational training to the Burmese military in the form of programmes delivered by the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom on the role of the military in a democracy, with leadership and England language training. We really do continue to believe that that is a useful thing to do to engage the next generation of the Burmese army.