Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the arrests in Myanmar of two Kachin Baptist priests who face up to eight years imprisonment for assisting journalists, following a military airstrike on St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Mong Ko in July.

The UK Government is deeply concerned for the welfare of the Kachin pastor and youth worker Dumdaw Nawng Lat and Langjaw Gam Seng since they were arrested on Christmas Eve 2016. They remain in detention in Shan. The Foreign Secretary raised their case with the military appointed Minister of Home Affairs when he visited Burma in January.

We urge the military to produce evidence that Dumdaw Nawng Lat and Langjaw Gam Seng have any connections to any ethnic armed group and that this be presented and evaluated in a court of law. Should the evidence be non-existent or insufficient, we call for the immediate release of both men. Should the evidence exist, we urge the authorities to accord the two men due process and fair trial standards.