27th October 2017

Dear Prime Minister

Arms sales to Saudi Arabia

The war in Yemen has now entered its third year, with devastating effects. By
the beginning of 2017, the number of civilian casualties had already surpassed
10 000, and a further 40 000 people had been injured. As early as 2015, a UN
report stated that a staggering 93 per cent of deaths and injuries in populated
areas were civilians. Appallingly, several reports have shown that air strikes
also targeted schools, weddings and hospitals.

Even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein,
has confirmed that any intentional attacks on hospitals or ambulances being
exclusively used for medical purposes would amount to war crimes. And
beyond this, a recent UN annual report on Children and Armed Conflict
blacklisted Saudi Arabia, because the Saudi-led air coalition was responsible for
causing the deaths of at least 683 children in Yemen. This represented the
highest number of child casualties in the report!

Last year, another UN report estimated that 2.5 million people had been
displaced, while a naval blockade still hinders food and medicine imports,
causing a devastating famine and widespread lack of vital supplies. The UN
warns that about 20 million people are in need of some form of aid. Many of
them are at immediate risk of starvation.

Under such enormous pressure, it is hardly surprising that the Yemeni health
system has collapsed. Millions of people are cut off from clean water and waste
collection has ceased in major cities. As hygiene and sanitation conditions
deteriorate and the water supply is disrupted, Yemen fights the worst cholera
epidemic in the world. Only last month, the WHO reported that the number of
suspected cholera cases in Yemen hit half a million this year. Nearly 2,000
people have died since the disease began to spread rapidly at the end of April.
These victims are also a direct result of Saudi-led coalitions military actions.
Despite all of this, the UK has continued to export weapons to Saudi Arabia.
While the High Court in July ruled that these exports were not unlawful, they
are deeply immoral and cannot be defended on claims of our national security.
We strongly condemn this state of affairs. This simply cannot go on. The UK
should not export weapons to a country that is prepared to use them
indiscriminately against civilians, children and hospitals.

We cannot accept that such atrocities are happening with the support of our
Government.

We therefore call on you to immediately suspend all arms exports to Saudi

Arabia until such time as the human rights of the people of Yemen can be fully
guaranteed. Action not words is needed and it is wrong for the UK to sell arms
to an oppressive regime.

Yours sincerely,

Molly Scott Cato MEP

Keith Taylor MEP

Jean Lambert MEP

Caroline Lucas MP