We attach the monthly death penalty report for October thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it.
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Death penalty report
Yemen bombing
140 killed in air raid on a funeral
At long last, the war in Yemen is beginning to attract the attention it deserves. Most news bulletins still lead on the atrocities in Syria but the horrific events in Yemen where the Saudis bombed a funeral killing 140 and wounding around 500 has at last brought the conflict onto the TV screens. The bombing, combined with the blockade, is causing untold misery to ordinary Yemenis. The wounded will struggle to get proper medical treatment because the hospitals are also being bombed and the blockade means medical supplies cannot get through.
We first started drawing attention to the war there over a year ago and raised the matter with our local MP. A bland letter was received from the Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood. Subsequent revelations have shown that the actions the FCO were claiming to have done were somewhat wide of the truth.
The core issue is the use of our arms (and those of the US, the principal weapons suppliers to the Saudis) are being used in the conflict. It was also revealed (inadvertently, and no doubt embarrassingly by the Saudis) that British service people were advising the Saudis. Quite what their role is there is disputed.
This particular attack has been condemned by the UN, the EU and the US. The Foreign Office still claims there is no need to revoke licences as there is no serious breach of humanitarian law. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said:
The air strikes on a funeral ceremony was a “heartless attack on civilians and an outrageous violation of international humanitarian law.” He said an independent body to probe rights violations in Yemen must be set up. There must be accountability for the appalling conduct of this entire war. Mail on line [accessed 11 October 2016]
The Saudis are not alone in committing these atrocities and the Houthi rebels are likewise accused.
The Saudis can carry on with their attacks because we supply them with the weapons and we also give the regime a degree of diplomatic cover. The huge sale of weapons – over £3bn a year – is clearly a factor influencing government policy. This latest episode is making it harder for the government to ignore what is going on there and our role in helping them. The mantra about the control of arms sales is still alive and well however:
On the point of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, a Government spokesperson told The Independent the UK “takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously”
The key test … for our continued licensing of arms exports to Saudi Arabia is whether there is a clear risk that those exports might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” she said. “The situation is kept under careful and continual review.” Independent [accessed 11 October 2016]
But recent TV filmed reports showing the carnage going on there, hospitals full of emaciated children and widespread starvation caused by the conflict and the blockade will begin to make it harder for the government to keep up the pretence of ‘taking its arms export responsibilities seriously’.
The Salisbury group campaigns on a range of issues and we welcome new members. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook to find out when we have an action in the City and come along.
New publications
The following three factsheets have been produced by the group for use on stalls and on campaigns generally. They can be downloaded here (pdf files). One is about the group and what it does and has achieved; another is a death penalty case in Japan for the World Day Against the Death Penalty on Saturday, and the last is about refugees.
[If any Amnesty group would like one of these sheets we are happy to modify them, with their own group details on for example, and send you an amended pdf]
UK blocks war crimes enquiry
We have described the events in Yemen and the role of the UK in selling arms to the Saudis who are using them to bomb civilian targets in that country. We have been assured that the UK has a strict policy when it comes to selling arms which does not in fact seem to work. The most recent activity by our government is to block and enquiry by the European Union into allegations of war crimes in Yemen.
The UN’s Human Rights Council based in Geneva was hoping to carry out a proper enquiry but this was stymied by the UK. Only today, Boris Johnson condemned the Russians for war crimes in Syria alleging that civilians were being targeted. There seems little difference to what the Russians are alleged to be doing and what we are doing by selling arms to the Saudis who then use them to bomb civilian targets, hospitals and schools.
The policy has been condemned by Human Rights Watch and by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
Minutes – September
We attach minutes of the September meeting thanks to group member Lesley for preparing them.
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Yemen – leaked report
Leaked report on BBC’s Newsnight criticises supposedly rigorous arms sales regime
On the BBC last night (6 September) there was an item concerning arms sales by Britain to Saudi Arabia. Readers of this blog will be no strangers to this item and we have been highlighting this trade for some time. The weapons are being used to bomb Yemen and targets include hospitals, schools and even wedding parties. British service personnel are involved in the command centre doing what is not entirely clear.
At last the Commons Committee on Arms Export Controls is asking questions and a leak of their report said:
The weight of evidence of violations of international humanitarian law by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is now so great that it is very difficult to continue to support Saudi Arabia while maintaining the credibility of our arms licensing regime
Oxfam is among the agencies who have been critical of this trade and the results in Yemen. At least 4,000 have died, many have had to flee their homes and among the dead are women and children. Oxfam said:
The UK government is in denial and disarray over its arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition bombing campaign in Yemen. It has misled its own parliament about its oversight of arms sales and its international credibility is in jeopardy as it commits to action on paper but does the opposite in reality
Even now, the Foreign Office continues to defend the sales and Boris Johnson has reportedly defended the Saudis saying:
They have the best insight into its own procedures and will be able to conduct the most thorough and conclusive investigation
Will be able to but will they?
Of course this is linked to the powerful lobbying by the arms firms themselves and countries like Saudi (who have a representative Adel al-Jubeir here to try and persuade the Committee not to recommend banning arms sales). The current version of Private Eye (1246) has a lengthy report on what is called the ‘revolving door,’ that is the huge numbers of senior civil servants, ex-ministers and senior military people who move from their posts into companies and firms linked to their previous roles. It makes the point that sound government is eroded if ministers and other senior people are hoping to hop into a lucrative directorship or consultancy once they leave government or the services. In a four page report it lists the shear numbers moving out of government or the services into commercial posts usually linked to their previous roles. How likely are they to stop sales to Saudi if it could jeopardise their post ministerial employment?
The Committee meets today so it will be interesting to hear what they decide.
Sources: BBC; International Business Times; the Sun; Oxfam; Amnesty International
Yemen war
The war in Yemen (again)
UPDATE: 21 August
Full page article in the Observer newspaper on the subject of arms sales to Yemen.
In many previous posts we have drawn attention to the war in Yemen which receives far less coverage than events in Syria. In particular, we have drawn attention to the role of the UK government in supporting the Saudis with weapons, political cover and providing – quite shamefully – British service personnel to advise them on the military activities. We wrote last year to our local MP John Glen who replied with a bland letter from a Foreign Office minister, Tobias Ellwood which began to unwind in the following weeks.
We have also highlighted the role of British arms suppliers and the many billions of pounds of weaponry which has gone to the Saudis to enable them to continue the bombing campaign in Yemen. Bombing has been indiscriminate and hospitals; mosques; weddings and schools have been targeted.
The FCO has now admitted that its responses have been less than honest in a statement slipped out on the last day of parliament. The claim that human rights law was not being breached is now no longer claimed only that they were not being assessed.
So our involvement in the Yemen conflict has been shameful in the extreme and the fact that Britain is profiting from it as well only makes matters worse. The government has been lucky in the world has been distracted by Syria and Yemen only appears in the news now and again with little sign of media traction.
A leader article in the Guardian on 18 August, set out again many of the points it and others have been making over the last year or so. It points out that we have licensed £3.3bn (yes that’s BILLION) of weapon sales to Saudi over the past year alone according to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. The cost to the Yemenis has been immense with 6,500 dead and 2.5 million displaced. Save the Children point out that one in three of under-fives suffers malnutrition. The World Bank; UN and EU agencies estimate £14bn of damage to the economy. And so on and so on. We and the US are the main culprits in terms of support and arms sales yet there is no sign of an end to the conflict. The Saudis are apparently pretty hopeless in their bombing activities despite the help they get from our service personnel.
But – there is a glimmer of good news with CAAT winning the right to a judicial review of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The government has resisted this naturally enough but CAAT has won through.
The UK government – with the USA – has helped support terrible humanitarian and economic damage on this country. It has behaved less than honestly. When and if the conflict ends there will be need to carry out massive reconstruction. Once again we have been involved in destabilising a country with little thought to the aftermath. Parliamentary scrutiny has been lamentable.
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Death penalty report- August
We attach the latest monthly death penalty report with thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. A fairly full report with a big section on Turkey which is contemplating reintroducing the death penalty following the recent failed coup.
Liam Fox and Azerbaijan
Minister’s close association with this dreadful state
Azerbaijan is ruled by a dictator Ilham Aliyev and is renowned for being a brutal state where torture is common and human rights flagrantly abused. In the words of Human Rights Watch:
Azerbaijan’s government has escalated repression against its critics, marking a dramatic deterioration in an already poor rights record. In recent years , dozens of human rights defenders, political and civil activists, journalists, and bloggers have been arrested or imprisoned on politically motivated charges, prompting others to flee the country or go into hiding. Bank accounts of independent civic groups and their leaders have been frozen, impeding their work, or in some cases forcing them to shut down entirely. New legal regulations make it almost impossible for independent groups to get foreign funding. While criticizing the increasing crackdown, Azerbaijan’s international partners have failed to secure rights improvements.
The problem is that the country is rich in oil and so there is a rush by western and other governments to secure contracts. Hundreds of millions of dollars of the country’s wealth sit in overseas bank accounts controlled by the Aliyev family and they like owning large amounts of real estate in London as well. (Daily Mail 21 December 2012)
Where oil and money are concerned of course, it is too much for western countries including the UK, to concern themselves with human rights especially as we know that the emphasis now is on trade. Prince Andrew is a regular visitor to the country and Tony Blair was paid £90, 000 for a twenty minute speech. They have been using ‘sports wash’ to improve their image and hosted the recent Formula 1 race.
Another visitor is the Secretary of State for International Trade, the disgraced MP, Dr Liam Fox pictured left (Bing images). In the words of the New Statesman, ‘he is in the most literal sense, shameless and should never hold high office again.’ (23 December 2016) He was sacked for breaking the ministerial code.
According to the Observer (7 August 2016) he has been paid £5,700 for the right to translate his book Rising Tides into Azerbaijani. He was paid a further £3, 500 or so to fly out there to promote it. Few read the book in English and no other country has translated it. One passage from the book, referring to Burma, is interesting:
[…] freedom from fear and freedom of expression, including a free press and broadcast media and the right to dissent within the law. It requires an inclusive political solution that addresses the underlying causes of the conflict and takes into account the legitimate grievances and aspirations of all the people of a land. Until the rights, identities and hopes of all …, whatever their ethnic origins or religion, are treated as equal, peace and reconciliation will not be achieved.”
The reviewer of the Conservative Home site remarks:
A clear thread throughout the entire book is Fox’s emphasis on the values of liberty, democracy and human rights, and he makes a compelling case. He is not blindly idealistic, or reliant solely on the moral virtues of the argument – rather, he makes the case in terms of self-interest
It seems extraordinary that with these sentiments Dr Fox should consort with, and take money from, such a vile regime, beyond the needs of diplomacy. It fits with a government reluctant to tackle abuses in Saudi Arabia for example as we have commented frequently before. Final word to the Observer:
Dr Fox is a man for our debased times because his record with Azerbaijan shows the international trade secretary would not want to raise [human rights concerns] even if he could. Our future is not going to be proud and independent, but grubby and murky and filled with bad deals with worse governments; a future, in short, where the foxes rule the henhouse.
Saudi blackmails UN
Saudi Arabia has successful blackmailed the UN to remove itself from a blacklist
Human rights groups around the world have condemned the decision by the U.N. to remove Saudi Arabia from a blacklist of countries which are accused of abusing children’s rights. This arises from their bombing activities in the Yemen conflict but also the general treatment of children in Saudi. In Yemen, 1,953 children were killed and it is estimated that 60% of these deaths are as a result of Saudi bombing. Britain is a major supplier of weapons to the regime and British service personnel are advising the Saudis.
The kingdom, who routinely violates their own citizens’ human rights on a daily basis, threw a fit when the UN published its report and threatened to withhold funding from the organisation.
Foreign Policy reported that:
senior Saudi diplomats told top U.N. officials Riyadh would use its influence to convince other Arab governments and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to sever ties with the United Nations.
On Monday, Ban Ki-moon said
The Saudi coalition would be removed from the list, pending a review. Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi insisted the removal was “irreversible and unconditional.”
Human rights groups, including Amnesty, have rightfully condemned and blasted the UN for their reversal:
It appears that political power and diplomatic clout have been allowed to trump the U.N.’s duty to expose those responsible for the killing and maiming of more than 1,000 of Yemen’s children,
Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, Oxfam’s country director in Yemen, said in a statement:
The decision to retract its finding is a moral failure and goes against everything the U.N. is meant to stand for.
Philippe Bolopion, Human Rights Watch deputy director for global advocacy, said that the office “has hit a new low by capitulating to Saudi Arabia’s brazen pressure” and “Yemen’s children deserve better.”
Amnesty International’s UN office claimed:
…if the U.N. doesn’t start standing up for human rights and its own principles then they will become part of the problem rather than the solution.
Saudi Arabia will not be the first country to browbeat the UN – at one time or another all countries have done it especially where embarrassing national interest is a stake. This does seem to have been an especially egregious example however as the Saudi state’s crimes against children, and others, is well documented. Combined with the bizarre election of the Saudi’s onto the Human Rights Council of the UN – supported shamefully by the UK Government – it begins to make a mockery of this international body.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 