Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-01-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations, if any, they have made to the government of Russia about civilian casualties resulting from its aerial bombing in Syria.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We have repeatedly made clear to the Russian government our serious concerns about its bombing campaign in Syria. We have consistently called on Russia to focus its targeting on Daesh and to cease the targeting of moderate opposition groups. We have also expressed concern over the numbers of civilian casualties being reported as a result of Russian strikes. These have been evidenced by human rights groups such as Amnesty International who have claimed that at least 200 civilians have been killed by Russian airstrikes in Syria since September 2015, accusing Russia of “serious failures to respect international humanitarian law”. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), has raised our concerns about Russia’s approach with Foreign Minister Lavrov, including at meetings of the International Syria Support Group. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), discussed Syria with President Putin at the G20 Summit in Antalya, and in a telephone conversation on 9 December following Parliament’s vote to support military action against Daesh in Syria.
