PEACE campaigners called on the Welsh government today to stop renting out land for use as an airfield for the training of pilots from the Saudi Arabian air force.

Land owned by the government at Llanbedr in north-west Wales is being rented to Snowdonia Aerospace and is used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a training airfield because of lack of space at an existing training facility at RAF Valley on Ynys Mon (Anglesey). 

RAF Valley has drawn widespread criticism for training Saudi forces in the last two years.

Cymdeithas y Cymod (the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales) and the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) wrote to the Welsh government, asking them to stop renting out the land, especially at a time when Saudi Arabia is bombing civilians in Yemen.

Anna Jane Evans of Cymdeithas y Cymod said: “Thirty Saudi pilots were trained in RAF Valley again last year and now this expansion will massively increase the number of flights by opening the Llanbedr airspace for RAF training use.

“We cannot simply sit back and pretend that all is well while innocent civilians are being maimed and killed in Yemen and other countries.”

PPU’s Symon Hill said: “Over 20,000 people have been killed in Yemen and 16 million are going hungry.

“Should Wales, should Britain, be part of making this disaster worse? No wonder so many people in north-west Wales are objecting. 

“They are being asked to live with unbearable noise levels and environmental damage for the sake of the military interests of the UK and Saudi governments.

“Armed force cannot solve the real threats the world faces, such as pandemics, poverty and climate change.”