The Island’s MP, Andrew Turner, is one of 66 senior politicians calling on David Cameron to urge the United Nations to act on the ‘genocide’ being perpetrated by Daesh/ISIS against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
66 Parliamentarians have written to the Prime Minister urging that the British Government “use all the influence of Her Majesty’s Government at the United Nations to obtain an agreement that the word ‘genocide’ should be used” in relation to the atrocities being committed in Iraq and Syria.
They cite evidence of assassinations by ISIS of Church leaders; mass murders; torture, kidnapping for ransom in the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria; sexual enslavement and systematic rape of Christian girls and women; forcible conversions to Islam; destruction of churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and Christian artifacts; and theft of lands and wealth from Christian clergy and laity.
Defining the atrocities as ‘genocide’ would require the United Nations and the 127 signatory nations to act to implement the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide which defines genocide as a systematic killing or seriously harming of people because they are part of a recognisable group. That group may be “national, ethnic, racial or religious” and the treaty identifies “acts committed with intent to destroy [that group] in whole or in part.”
Andrew Turner has today said:
“Daesh are an evil cult who have unleashed a tide of death on Christians and other minority religions in the areas where they have seized control. We must send a clear and unequivocal message to them that eventually they will be held to account by the international community for their atrocities.
“We hope the Prime Minister will now act swiftly to encourage the United Nations to describe these killings as the orchestrated genocide they are.”
The 66 signatories of all faiths and none are drawn from both Houses of Parliament, all political parties and include three Anglican Bishops, a former Director General of the Security Services Management Board (Lord Evans), a former Chief of the Defence Staff (Lord Guthrie), professors and senior lawyers.
Cllr Chris Whitehouse (Cons. Newport West), who organized the letter as Secretary of the Catholic Legislators’ Network, adds:
“One word, genocide, is all it takes this Christmas to send a powerful message to evil-doers of ISIS that they will be caught, tried and punished. It would force the 127 nations that are signatories to the Convention to act to “prevent and punish” the perpetrators of these evil acts”.
