Local Editor
Senior politicians have called for an urgent independent investigation into reports of breaches of international humanitarian law on both sides of the conflict in Yemen.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, Stephen Twigg, chair of the international development committee, said it was “remarkable” that Saudi Arabia, which is leading coalition airstrikes intervening in the Yemen conflict, was also taking the lead in investigating alleged war crimes.
The coalition has faced a series of accusations of human rights breaches since the start of the conflict as the number of civilians killed in coalition airstrikes rises.
Twigg said: “I find it remarkable that the government still holds the line Saudi Arabia must take responsibility for investigating its own alleged violation.”
The UK government has repeatedly been questioned by ministers over the past 14 months about Saudi Arabia’s investigations, Twigg continued. “At what point will the British government take the view we need to move to an independent inquiry?”
The debate comes just days after the release of Foreign Office documents that showed the British military has provided training to a Saudi war crimes investigations unit headed by a Bahraini judge campaigners claim is partisan.
Human rights campaigners said Britain’s role in training the Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT), a Saudi-led coalition military body set up in May 2016, had made the UK complicit in whitewashing human rights abuses in the Gulf.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) was found to have delivered two training sessions for JIAT on the process of investigating alleged violations of international humanitarian laws, documents released through a freedom of information request revealed.
The Foreign Office response added the MoD had not been directly involved in actual investigations, although the embassy in Riyadh keeps “regular contact” with JIAT.
Source: buzzfeed, Edited by Website Team
