The UK Is Training Militaries Of The Countries On Its List Of Human Rights Abuses
Britain has revealed that it is helping in training the militaries of more than a dozen countries – those involved in serious breaches of human rights abuses.
There are seventeen countries defines as states where the UK is ‘particularly concerned about human rights issues’ on the human right watch list of the Foreign office. The instruction was provided from the British armed forces from 2018-20.
In March, the UK was providing military training to the armed forces of Belarus – a country with under dictatorship where the pro-democracy protestors are facing oppression.
Ministers have now accepted the fact that in between 2018 and 2020, the UK armed has provided training to the states on the FCO’s own watch list: Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Maldives, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Colombia.
According to NGO Human Rights Watch, sniper commander course training was provided to the soldiers of Bahrain, leading to the cracking down on peaceful dissent in 2018, ultimately eliminating all the opposition to its government.
The UK has also provided fighter jet and tactical weapons use training to the Saudi Arabian forces, while the country engaged in an aerial bombardment in Yemen – the UN and aid agencies say that it has created a humanitarian catastrophe.
The UK had provided a commando training course to the Egyptian forces and also trained Chinese officer corps.
17 out of the 30 countries on the so-called “human rights priority countries” list of the UK are being provided being military training by the country.
Apart from these, some other countries with poor human rights records but no name in the UK’s watch list was also given training – Philippines, Turkey, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE.
This data was revealed after a written parliamentary question was raised by Labour MP Sam Tarry.
According to the Ministry of Defence, they keep any training done with other countries under review.
‘Many of these armies have appalling human rights records and have been linked to brutal oppression as well as international aggression. By training and collaborating with despots, dictatorships, and human rights abusers the UK risks making itself complicit in the abuses that are being inflicted. For far too long, successive UK governments have talked about the importance of human rights and democracy while arming, supporting, and strengthening authoritarian regimes across the world. There must be an end to the hypocrisy and a full review of which forces the UK has trained and if they have been linked to human rights abuses.’ – Andrew Smith of the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
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