Critics say Australia can’t guarantee weapons it sells to Saudi Arabia aren’t diverted to conflict in Yemen

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Countries – such as Australia and its allies – who arm and provide military support to a Saudi-led coalition that has starved civilians, bombed hospitals and blocked humanitarian aid as tactics of war, may be complicit in war crimes, a United Nations report has said.

A UN panel of experts has published a list of 160 politicians and military officers who could face war crimes charges, including from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemeni government military forces and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement.

Australia has embarked on a concerted push to expand defence exports in recent years, particularly to the Middle East. The former defence industry minister Christopher Pyne met key Saudi and Emirati officials to discuss exports in 2016 and 2017.

Australia told to halt arms sales as Yemen catastrophe unfolds Read more

The three-member UN panel, which includes the former Australian Labor MP Melissa Parke, said there had been a “collective failure” by the international community to prevent extreme human rights violations.

The report found the conflict had been plagued by human rights abuses including hospitals being bombed, civilians being deliberately targeted by shelling and sniper fire, civilian populations being deliberately starved, medical supplies being blocked, rape, murder, enforced disappearances, torture, and forcing children to fight.

The panel “urges other states to refrain from providing arms that could be used in the conflict, and reminds them of their obligation to take all reasonable measures to ensure respect for international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict”.

“Third states have a specific influence on the parties to the conflict in Yemen, or directly or indirectly support them, including by means of intelligence and logistic support,” the report said.

The UN report will bring renewed focus on international arms sales to Saudi Arabia’s military, including by Australia. While Australia’s defence department and weapons suppliers such as EOS say the weapons systems it sells to Saudi Arabia are not deployed in Yemen, critics say Australia cannot guarantee that its weapons have not been diverted to that conflict.

And regardless of whether Australian weapons cross the border into Yemen, the UN report raises concerns that Australia has sold weapons to suspected war criminals, and continues to do so.

The UN report names France, Iran, the UK and US, “among other states”, as potentially complicit in war crimes.

“States may be held responsible for providing aid or assistance for the commission of international law violations if the conditions for complicity are fulfilled. States are obliged to take all reasonable measures to ensure respect for international humanitarian law by other states.

“The continued supply of weapons to parties involved in the conflict in Yemen perpetuates the conflict and the suffering of the population.”

In July, photographs were published which showed Australian-built remote weapons systems being shipped from Sydney airport to the general department of arms and explosives of Saudi Arabia’s ministry of interior.

Labelling on the pallets identified the seller as ATK Alliance Techsystems Operations (Orbital ATK), a US-based company which sells the R400s remote weapons station manufactured by an Australian firm, Electro Optics Systems (EOS).

Australian weapons maker EOS insists none of its products used in Yemen Read more

The R400s remote weapons station allows small cannons, guns or missile launchers to be mounted on military and light vehicles and operated remotely.

In an interview with the Defence Technology Review in 2018, the chief executive of EOS, Ben Greene, said the remote weapons station was a “game changer” which “meets and overmatches current threats”.

“This innovative technology for the first time allows 30mm cannon systems to be deployed with unprecedented accuracy on light vehicles, significantly enhancing lethality and protection without compromising mobility, and at low cost.”

Greene told the Guardian “no EOS product has, at any time, been deployed to or used in Yemen”, saying the weapons system supported the Saudi ministry of interior’s border operations, but did not cross international borders.

“We are physically in contact with the equipment.”

A spokeswoman for the defence department said Australia was not a participant in the Yemeni conflict and had consistently urged parties to respect international humanitarian law. Defence would not issue an export permit if it had concerns that goods exported by Australia might violate human rights, she said.

“Any military goods proposed for export by Australian firms are subject to a rigorous assessment process that takes into account Australia’s international obligations, including the Arms Trade Treaty, the impact the export could have on foreign policy, human rights, national security and regional security.”

Defence can ask arms exporters to provide an “end-use and non-transfer certificate by foreign government” ensuring weapons are not on-traded or used unlawfully.

In October 2016, defence industry minister Christopher Pyne met with UAE officials “to discuss our defence industry”. In October 2017, he met with Saudi defence officials “to promote Australia’s world-class defence materiel and strengthen bilateral defence industry relationships”.

In January 2018, the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull launched the Defence Export Strategy to boost Australian arms sales overseas, establishing the Australian Defence Export Office to manage all government-to-government sales. The government established a $3.8bn fund – the Defence Export Facility – to provide finance to Australian defence companies seeking to sell arms overseas.

Earlier this year, a group of civil society organisations formed the Australian Arms Control Coalition to put pressure on the Australian government to halt arms exports to parties in the Yemen war.

One member of the Coalition, Save the Children, said the UN report should act as a “wake-up call” for Australia. The chief executive of Save the Children, Paul Ronalds, said Australia had been unable to guarantee that its arms exports were not finding their way into the Yemen conflict.

“What we know is that Australia has exported military assets to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which the UN has said are among parties that have committed possible war crimes in Yemen. We’re concerned this could mean Australia is complicit in some of these war crimes, but there’s no way of knowing for sure because there’s no transparency in the system.”

The organisation’s Yemen country director, Tamer Kirolos, said it was unacceptable that those responsible were not being held responsible for the “killing, maiming, and other grave violations against thousands of Yemeni children”. Kirolos said the report showed starvation was being used as a weapon of war, a tactic directly affecting Yemeni children.

“Our teams are seeing the results of this terrible conflict every single day – children are coming in sick, malnourished, sometimes too weak to eat,” he said. “They’re dying of lack of clean and safe water, and medicines.”

Conor Costello from Oxfam Australia said there was “a real and present risk that arms sold by Australia to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia could be being used in Yemen in ways that could breach the rules of war and prolong the conflict”.

She said there was a lack of transparency and accountability in Australia’s arms export system, and that arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and the UAE should be suspended.