Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their understanding and interpretation of the difference between genocide and ethnic cleansing, in the light of evidence of actions by the government of Burma and others in Rakhine state against the Rohingya people, particularly since August.

It would only be for a court to decide whether genocide has occurred in Rakhine State. The Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, Mark Field MP, wrote in an article for Sky News on 14 November that "what is happening there looks like ethnic cleansing." This is why the UK continues to call for an end to all violence and for an early return of Rohingya refugees consistent with the UN principles of voluntary, safe and dignified return.