Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that there is an independent international investigation of the allegations against the Burmese military for their actions against the Rohingya community in Burma.

The immediate task is to support those building evidence and testimony. The Government is considering how to support effective co-ordination, through an international or local mechanism, of those organisations already collecting testimony in Bangladesh. The UK will provide capacity building to Bangladeshi stakeholders on gathering and preserving evidence of sexual violence, in line with the International Protocol on Investigation and Documentation of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

The UK co-sponsored the resolution at the Human Rights Council in March 2017 that set up a Fact Finding Mission to look into the human rights situation in Burma, including Rakhine. It will issue its initial report in mid-March, and final report in September 2018. Any judgement on whether crimes under international law have occurred is a matter for judicial decision, rather than governments or non-judicial bodies, but the UK government will work closely with the international community, to ensure any wrongdoers are brought to account.