U.N. report finds Saudi coalition forces breaking international law
A U.N. panel of experts has released a report detailing human rights violations by a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The report has forced the United Kingdom to examine the rate at which it exports weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Following the partial release of the panel’s findings—on Jan. 27, 2015—human rights groups called for an immediate inquiry and a suspension on the sale of arms from the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister David Cameron said that he would take the report into consideration, but stated that the U.K. has some of the toughest rules pertaining to the sale of arms anywhere in the world.
Prime Minister Cameron also added that the U.K. was not directly involved in the attacks in Yemen.
The report attributes 60 per cent of civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen—approximately 2,682 lives—to air-launched explosive weapons.
One statement from the 51-page report reads: “The panel documented that the coalition had conducted airstrikes targeting civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international humanitarian law, including camps for internally displaced persons and refugees; civilian gatherings, including weddings; civilian vehicles, including buses; civilian residential areas; medical facilities; schools; mosques; markets, factories and food storage warehouses; and other essential civilian infrastructure, such as the airport in Sana’a, the port in Hudaydah and domestic transit routes.”
The panel’s report goes on to say: “The coalition’s targeting of civilians through airstrikes, either by bombing residential neighbourhoods or by treating the entire cities of Sa’dah and Maran as military targets, is a grave violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. In certain cases, the panel found such violations to have been conducted in a widespread and systematic manner.” Saudi Arabia is the largest buyer in the U.K.’s yearly £2.5 billion arms market. In recent months, the U.K. has come under fire, as their weapons and equipment have been found in the hands of Saudi coalition forces in Yemen.
Until the Jan. 27 report, British Parliament plausibly denied the actions taken by Saudi forces. The report provides valid evidence for claims made by human rights activist David Mepham.
“The findings of the U.N. report flatly contradict repeated statements made by British ministers about the actions of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen,” said Mepham, the U.K. director of Human Rights Watch.
Speaking from Parliament, Prime Minister Cameron replied to Mepham, by saying: “We have the strictest rules for arms exports of almost any country anywhere in the world. And let me remind him that we are not a member of the Saudi-led coalition. We are not directly involved in the Saudi-led coalition’s operations, British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes.”
“Thousands of civilians have already died and it’s been utterly dismaying to see Downing Street brushing aside extremely serious concerns about the reckless conduct of Saudi Arabia in this devastating conflict,” said Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International U.K.’s head of policy and government affairs, in a Jan. 27, 2016 Guardian article.
In a ministerial statement in March 2014, the U.K. government said that it “will not grant a licence if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”