Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Government of Burma on the murder of Ko Ni.

The Government was deeply troubled by the murder of U Ko Ni. He was killed at the airport while returning from a UK-funded study trip to Indonesia. He was a leading advocate for democratic reform, and the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Mr Boris Johnson), met him at a reception at the British Ambassador's Residence in Rangoon during his visit to Burma on 21 January. Our Ambassador attended his funeral on 31 January. An official police investigation into U Ko Ni's death is now under way. We await its outcome. The Burmese authorities have not requested our assistance in the investigation and neither have we offered it.