Burma Briefing No. 30
As the British government faces a growing number of questions about Burma in the British Parliament, including relating to controversial policy decisions, the government is increasingly resorting to avoiding giving a straight and clear answer to questions, probably in order to avoid proper scrutiny of its policies.
Analysis of the 62 Written Parliamentary Questions answered between October and December 2013 reveals that the British government did not actually answer 25 of them – forty-one percent – instead providing general information or otherwise avoiding giving a clear answer.
Subjects on which the British government avoided giving a straight answer include on military training of the Burmese Army, ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, Burmese government spending on the military and health, torture, political prisoners and child soldiers.
Burma Campaign UK is publishing this briefing paper in the hope that highlighting just how many questions are not being properly answered will encourage the government to start giving clearer and specific answers to the questions it is asked in Parliament.