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<p>This is an issue of serious concern in light of the extensive inter-communal violence
of 2012 and the large-scale Buddhist nationalist protests seen across Rakhine at the
start of July this year. The British Government has repeatedly raised our concerns
with the Burmese Government at the highest levels, and will continue to do so. The
former Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the
member for East Devon (Mr Swire), raised this a number of times, including in July
2015 last year during his visit to Burma, when he also visited Rakhine. We are encouraged
to see that the new Burmese Government has started to take real steps to try to defuse
tensions in Rakhine while making progress for the Rohingya, including through forming
a cross-Government Rakhine committee and re-starting the citizenship verification
exercise.</p>
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