‘Genocide’ of Middle East’s Christians to be addressed

A CAMPAIGN to persuade the government to recognise Islamic State’s (IS) persecution of Christians as genocide is gaining momentum, according to Lord (David) Alton, the Catholic peer behind it.

More than 75 MPs and peers have signed a letter to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, citing evidence of atrocities committed by IS.

These include assassinations of church leaders; mass murders and 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 and Christian artefacts.

Were these acts to be recognised as genocide, they would qualify under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and put pressure on the 147 signatory nations to act to prevent the atrocities.

Last week, members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief met Baroness (Joyce) Anelay, the Foreign Office minister. Lord Alton, co-author of the letter, said: “The government is listening to our concerns. I understand that ministers are looking at whether UK law and legal structures might provide an effective response and whether a regional tribunal to prosecute genocide might be constituted.

“This is welcome news which we hope will also see the UN declare as genocide the killing of innocent Iraqi and Syrian Christians and Yazidis.”

The group also called on the government to recognise the work that Christian charities have done and asked why these organisations have received no funding from the Department for International Development (DFID).

“DFID officials and their ministers told me how impressed they are by the work of charities like Aid to the Church In Need,” Lord Alton said.

A spokesperson for DFID said: “Whoever needs our help the most gets it first. Inevitably that means we will be helping Christians as well as those of other faiths.”

Labour MP Rob Flello, co-author of the letter, called for the public to lobby MPs to press the government to “prevent and punish this genocide”.