Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if the Government will (a) carry out its own assessment and (b) support an independent international inquiry into whether the airstrike on a community hall in Sana’a, where a funeral was taking place, on 8 October 2016, breached international humanitarian law.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Coalition has announced it will immediately investigate this case along with Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT). The UK Government does not reach a conclusion as to whether or not an International Humanitarian Law violation has taken place in relation to each and every incident of potential concern that comes to its attention. This would simply not be possible in conflicts to which the UK is not a party, as is the case in Yemen. However, as I said in my statement of 9 October, we will press the coalition to release their report into this incident as a matter of urgency.