Amnesty International has written to David Cameron calling for a full investigation after it says it found a partially-exploded British cluster bomb in northern Yemen.
Amnesty
Amnesty International has written to the British prime minister, David Cameron, and other senior ministers, after it uncovered evidence that the Saudi Arabia-led coalition may have used UK-manufactured cluster bombs in Yemen.
The human rights group found a "BL-755" cluster bomb near the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border, along with American and Brazilian-made cluster bombs. The weapon contains over 147 fragments that are designed to burn through tank armour but often don't detonate until they're picked up, sometimes by civilians unaware of how dangerous they are.
Cluster bombs are banned by over 100 countries, including the UK, under the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The BL-755 was sold by Britain before it joined the convention, and Amnesty argues that it should trace the weapons sold in the past and would like to see existing stockpiles destroyed.
Saudi Arabia is currently not a member of the convention, but under international humanitarian law, the Kingdom, and the coalition it leads, must not use indiscriminate weapons that pose a threat to civilians. Amnesty has provided evidence that children have been killed in Yemen after picking up bomblets.
Amnesty International UK's arms control director Oliver Sprague said: "Cluster bombs are one of the nastiest weapons in the history of warfare, rightly banned by more than 100 countries, so it's truly shocking that a British cluster munition has been dropped on a civilian area in Yemen."
The bomb is designed to be dropped from UK Tornado fighter jets, scores of which have been sold to Saudi Arabia.
Sprague said: "Given that this type of cluster bomb is very likely to have been used in combination with Tornado war planes which the UK has also sold to Saudi Arabia, there's even a possibility that British support personnel might have been involved in the cluster bombing of Yemen. This would be an absolute scandal if confirmed."
A government spokesperson denied that this was the case, saying: "The UK is not a member of the Saudi-led Coalition. British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes, directing or conducting operations in Yemen or selecting targets and are not involved in the Saudi targeting decision-making process."
The charity is now demanding a full inquiry into the discovery and into all aspects of the UK's arming of Saudi Arabia. The Foreign Office had not responded to multiple requests for comment at the time of publication.
Mohamed Al-Sayaghi / Reuters
via BuzzFeed - World http://ift.tt/1XLYkZA
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment