Sudan: Protection of Civilians Debate
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Charlie Maynard
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Sudan: Protection of Civilians
Charlie Maynard Excerpts(1 day, 18 hours ago)
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Stephen Doughty
My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of accountability. I have already referred to our support for the work of the International Criminal Court and, indeed, wider investigations into allegations of atrocities—we work to support non-governmental organisations and others. I must also highlight the work of the media in this space, particularly the investigations of the BBC and other media organisations. As I have said, we keep our export licences under close review, and we take allegations very seriously. I can assure him that I am speaking to officials about these matters.
Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)
Given that it has been widely reported in the press that the UAE is arming the RSF, does the Minister have a view on the following two points? First, if any party is exporting weapons to the RSF, we would be in breach of our export licence criteria if we are exporting weapons to that party. Secondly, it is irrelevant whether or not our weapons are being exported and end up in Sudan if that party is exporting weapons to the RSF.
Stephen Doughty
I am very happy to write to the hon. Gentleman with further details of how our arms export licensing criteria operate, but I can assure him that we have one of the tightest and strictest export control regimes in the world. It is compliant with our international legal obligations, and all potential exports are assessed against the strategic export licensing criteria. Specific allegations have been made in this case, and I can absolutely assure the hon. Gentleman that we will always look into allegations very seriously and consider them in the wider round.