It was an honour to be asked to chair the Party Conference session on International Development. And what a moving session it was. For a second year the Burmese peace campaigner Zoya Phan spoke about the disaster that is afflicting her beautiful country. Showing us the chains that the military junta makes jailed monks wear, Zoya challenged the international community to put an arms embargo in place against the Burma government. It is to our moral disgrace that military sanctions have not been in place for years. Fortunately, and rightly, Zoya now has asylum to remain in the UK, but she is clear that she just wants to go home. I hope that soon she can.
Andrew Mitchell led a team of speakers who had attended the amazing and life-changing Conservative trip to Rwanda this summer. Andrew's commitment to international development (unlike Secretary of State Douglas Alexander) is commendable and shows that Conservatives really do understand the social responsibility that we have for those less fortunate than ourselves across the whole world. His whole speech can be read here
The considerable impact of the Conservative visit to Rwanda this summer was reflected by the attendance at conference of the President of the Republic of Rwanda, His Excellency Paul Kagame, who I had the privilege of introducing onto the Conference stage.
