Asked by: Paul Scully (Conservative - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received of rocket fire into Israel from Gaza.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Our Embassy in Tel Aviv and our Consulate General in Jerusalem give us regular updates on the current situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. These updates include reports on rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip into the sea; any rocket fire from Gaza into Israel; and any retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Gaza. However they do not keep a record of the numbers, but according to UN figures, in January 2016 a total of three rockets were fired into Israel by Gazan militant groups.
Asked by: Paul Scully (Conservative - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the government of Burma on the detention of Niranjan Rasalingam.
Answered by Lord Swire
The British Embassy in Rangoon has provided consular assistance to Mr Rasalingam Niranjan since 1 December 2014 when it was established that Mr Niranjan had been detained. That same month we raised the late notification of Mr Niranjan’s arrest in a Note Verbale and reminded the then Burmese government of their obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In May 2015 the Ambassador re-stated our interest in the case, raised concerns about Mr Niranjan’s health and the progress of his legal cases. A further Note Verbale was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 2016 re-stating our interest in the case and concern about its progress.Asked by: Paul Scully (Conservative - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Government has requested the UN Security-General to lead personally negotiations on securing unrestricted humanitarian access in Rakhine State, Burma.
Answered by Lord Swire
The United Kingdom continues to encourage a wider UN leadership role to help bring peace and reconciliation to all communities in Rakhine State. We welcome the firm personal stand the UN Secretary General has already taken on the Rohingya. During his visit to Burma in November 2014, he publicly expressed his concern about the discrimination and violence they face, and called for the human rights and dignity of all the people in Rakhine to be respected. During the recent crisis in the Andaman Sea, he called President Thein Sein on 20 May to make clear his concerns. The UN Secretary General also presided over a meeting of the International Partnership Group on Burma on 24 April.
More widely, the UK is actively keeping Rakhine and the situation of the Rohingya high on the international agenda and within the UN system. With UK support, the situation in Rakhine was discussed at a UN Security Council briefing on 28 May, and the UK was instrumental in securing strong UN Resolutions on Burma at the UN General Assembly in November and the Human Rights Council in March. The latter resolution extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights. In Burma, Professor Yanghee Lee, who has highlighted the plight of the Rohingya in her reports. The Government invited Professor Lee to the UK in March, where she discussed the situation in Rakhine with the Minister of State, my noble Friend the right hon. Baroness Anelay of St Johns.
We will continue to engage closely with the UN system to maintain a focus on this important issue.