Corbyn slams UK government for complicity in Sudan genocide

On 3 November, Your Party co-leader Jeremy Corbyn sent a letter to the Home Office urging a ban on UK arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He cited Amnesty reports that the UAE is funnelling weapons to the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), thereby fuelling the genocide in Sudan.

UK complicit in Sudan genocide

The RSF captured the Darfur city of El Fasher just last week. They were accused of committing widespread atrocities almost immediately, including door-to-door killings and the murder of hospital patients. As the Canary’s Joe Glenton has previously reported:

the UAE is a close ally of the UK and US. Foreign weaponry – including some from the UK – has flooded into the country. RSF is the guarantor and guardian of UAE’s goldmines in the south of the country.

Likewise, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) media coordinator Emily Apple told the Canary:

The UK arms trade is out of control. Our government has known for years that the UAE has diverted military equipment to the RSF to fuel its genocide in Sudan. However, instead of taking action, it has continually pushed for more sales, even extending UAE an official government invitation to the DSEI arms fair in London.

Corbyn began his letter by citing statistics from Human Rights Watch, holding that 12.9 million people have fled their homes in Sudan. He also stated that the death toll of the conflict has now reached 150,000, with the recent RSF atrocities in El Fasher compounding the tragedy.

Corbyn went on:

You will be aware of multiple reports, including from the UN, claiming that the UAE has been providing arms to the RSF. Despite the gravity of these reports, the UK government continues to allow the supply of arms to the UAE. According to documents seen by the UN Security Council, British military equipment has been found on the battlefields in Sudan.

Suspend arms sales to the UAE

This isn’t the first time that Corbyn has raised the issue with the foreign secretary either, because (surprise) the international community has known about the UAE’s supplying the RSF for some time now. The Your Party co-leader stated:

Earlier this year, I wrote to your predecessor to express my grave concern over the UK’s continued arms sales to the UAE. Once again, I am writing to demand that the UK government suspends all arms sales to the UAE. The UK is obliged to stop the sale of weapons where there is a clear risk those weapons could be used to commit or facilitate atrocities. It is on this basis that Amnesty International has described the UK’s continued arms sales to the UAE as “indefensible”.

In that letter, I also expressed my sincere disappointment over the government’s decision to invite the UAE, but not the Sudanese government, to the “London Sudan conference” in April. This was a historic mistake, contradicting the government’s own stated commitment to a process that is Sudanese-led and undermining prospects for long-term peace.

In the same Amnesty statement that Corbyn referenced, Amnesty International UK’s military, security and policing director Oliver Feeley-Sprague stated that:

The UK’s own arms trade rules require it to stop the supply of weapons where there is a clear risk those weapons could be diverted to countries under arms embargo or used by end-users to commit or facilitate atrocities.

The UAE has been a known hub for arms diversion for years and the UK government has long been aware of weapons being routed through the Emirates to conflict zones like Sudan and Libya. Yet the UK kept approving arms sales to the UAE, even when the risks were staring it in the face. This raises serious questions about the UK’s potential complicity in mass atrocities.

Genocide supporters

Just as with the sale of UK arms to Israel, this government’s greed for military money at any cost is implicating the British public in aiding and abetting the genocide in Sudan. We know that UK weapons are on the field in Sudan. We know that the UAE is supplying the RSF. And, we also know that the government have been well aware of all this.

Corbyn’s letter to these disgraceful warmongers shows just how broken the UK is. For all the government’s desire to be a leader in global politics, the truth is that they’ll choose power and money every single time. And, just as with the funding of Israel’s genocide, they’re doing it by facilitating genocide.

Featured image via the Canary