Baroness Helic – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Helic on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they plan to give to the Commission on Rakhine State led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We have long advocated for action to tackle the problems of Rakhine for the benefit of all communities, and to end the mistreatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority. We therefore welcome the establishment of this Commission. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Alok Sharma), issued a statement to this effect on 25 August. On 14 September he also held a telephone conversation with Mr Annan in which he conveyed the UK’s strong support for his appointment and mandate. We are clear that this is a Burmese conceived and led initiative, and that is as it should be. The UK is providing funding to support the work of the Kofi Annan Foundation.