Time to rethink strategy

Nobody could fail to be moved by the plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma).

Some 370,000 have fled Rakhine state for Bangladesh since the outbreak of violence last month, with whole villages being burned down and the government accused by the UN of ethnic cleansing.

There are numerous reports of beheadings, rape and children being deliberately shot.

It all rather begs the question of why the UK Government, our government, continues to train the Burmese military.

This is, after all, a task which cost the UK around £305,000 last year.

Based on reports from the UN, human rights organisations and Rohingya organisations, we are witnessing human rights violations on a scale extreme even by the standards of Myanmar’s rather chequered history.

Estimates of people killed range from official figures of hundreds dead, to far higher estimates by reliable Rohingya organisations of between 2,000 and 3,000 killed.

Before we pontificate on the actions of the Burmese military, it would clearly be of no little assistance were we to put our own house in order.

That means immediately suspending training the soldiers of this brutal regime.

Alex Orr. 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.