Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the response of the government of Saudi Arabia was to his recent representations on (a) the attacks in Yemen on the Médecins Sans Frontières hospitals and mobile clinic, (b) the airstrike on the Oxfam warehouse, (c) the reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch of attacks on civilians and civilian facilities including schools and (d) investigations into the use of cluster munitions.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Saudia Arabia have their own internal procedures for investigations and they announced more detail of how they investigate such incidents on 31 January. This includes a new investigation team outside of Coalition Command to review all existing procedures and suggest improvements.

Regarding allegations of cluster munition use, we have raised this issue with the Saudi Arabian authorities and, in line with our obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, continue to encourage Saudi Arabia, as a non-party to the Convention, to accede to it.