Arms supplier BAE denies it has any responsibility to investigate Yemen atrocities

UK arms manufacturer BAE has appeared to give a false statement to shareholders, claiming the UK government and not the company itself is responsible for investigating war crimes in Yemen.

When asked if BAE systems monitors whether weapons are being used to target civilians in Yemen, the company’s chairman told shareholders that it is the British government that carries out the investigations.

Sir Roger Carr made the comments on 9 May at his firm’s Annual General Meeting in Farnborough, responding to questions about evidence of BAE-supplied planes and bombs striking schools, hospitals, markets and other civilian sites during the Saudi-led coalition’s aerial air campaign in Yemen, now in its fifth year.

“We look to the government who are the people who can do the investigation, who can ask the questions who can demand answers”, Sir Roger told his shareholders at the meeting.

But the government has repeatedly said it does not independently investigate alleged reckless or deliberate attacks on Yemeni civilians – acts that would violate international humanitarian law and invalidate arms export licences to the Kingdom.

In a written response to a parliamentary question in 2018, Mark Lancaster MP, a minister in the MOD, said that: “The MOD does not investigate allegations of IHL (international humanitarian law) violations. The Saudi-led Coalition is best placed to do this.”

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade told The Independent that “BAE is hiding behind the government and the government is hiding behind the Saudis,” in response to Sir Roger's remarks.

The Saudi-led coalition, which is armed with BAE aircraft and bombs, has been accused of the UN of targeting civilians “in a widespread and systematic manner”.

Some 90,000 have been killed from the aerial bombardment, and the crippling blockade of Yemen’s Red Sea ports by Saudi warships has left over 13 million, or nearly half the population, on the brink of famine.

On Thursday, the British government was forced to suspend approving the sale of weapons that could be used in Yemen, following a legal judgement that one of its processes were unlawful.

The government has said it is appealing the decision and says it will take 10 weeks to review existing licences.

Three open licences awarded by the government to BAE in 2013 and 2014 for the export of air to surface missiles – Paveway, Storm Shadow and Brimstone bombs – remain in force.

When it comes alleged misuse of British weapons in Yemen, the government does not carry out independent investigations, instead relying on Saudi Arabia’s assessment via the coalition’s Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT).

The JIAT is a military body comprising of 20 officers from the Saudi-led coalition, and almost never attributes responsibility for civilian strikes to the coalition.

On the occasions that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the World Food Programme were targeted, the JIAT has blamed the humanitarian organisations for failing to share their coordinates.

Human Rights Watch accused the JIAT in a report last year of failing to “meet international standards regarding transparency, impartiality, and independence.”

BAE Systems bases have 6,300 staff inside Saudi Arabia training Saudi pilots and conducting round-the-clock maintenance to ensure planes are war ready.

When asked during the AGM if BAE would decline to sell weapons if she believed they might be used to target civilians, Sue Tooze, a Senior Manager in the firm’s UK Exports and Control department, said: “BAE has a responsible trading policy.”

On the matter on Sir Roger’s comments on the government carrying out investigations, BAE told The Independent in a statement that it complies “with all relevant export control laws and regulations.”

CAAT’s Mr Smith said that “The war in Yemen cannot be fought without BAE."

“They have been essential providing the bombs and the jets which Saudi Arabia has used to kill almost 100,000 people in the last four and a half years.”

Riyadh's combat jets comprise parts made in various countries, but around half are made in the UK, assembled by BAE. It also produces parts for the US planes, which comprise the other half of the Saudi fleet.

The UK has sold arms worth £4.7bn to Saudi Arabia since the brutal war in Yemen began in 2015.

A House of Lords report in February said the weapons sales were probably illegal and “causing significant civilian casualties.”

And all five major opposition parties have called for a ban on the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, calling it “morally reprehensible” to continue doing so.

The US Senate also voted last week to block a major weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, a move likely to be supported by the Democrat-led House of Representatives, before it reaches the president’s desk, when he is likely to enact a veto over the block. Congress is unlikely to be able to secure the two-thirds majority needed to overturn his veto.