Paris action plan to help Isis victims

A Paris conference of 56 countries and 11 international and regional organisations drew up an action plan to help victims of the Islamic State in the Middle East with humanitarian aid, legal proceedings against jihadist crimes and efforts to preserve the cultural and religious diversity of the region.

“We will not let the ancient diversity of the Middle East disappear,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said at the end of the one-day conference, which was also attended by religious leaders from the area.

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako praised participants for their efforts to defeat Isis. “We have to destroy this horrible ideology and promote reconciliation, equal citizenship for all and the separation of Church and state,” he said.

The conference, co-hosted by Mr Fabius and his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh, included Russia and China, but not Iran or Syria. It agreed to work for the eventual return of refugees to their homes. They also agreed to support efforts to gather evidence and prepare legal cases against Isis leaders for war crimes and human rights violations.

n The Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch, Moran Mor Ignatius Joseph III Younan, who is visiting Canada, said the immediate refugee catastrophe in Europe should not cause the world to lose focus on the real cause of the problem, which is Islamic State, writes Peter Kavanagh. “Bombing is not enough. We have national armies in Syria and Iraq, but they must be supported to get rid of the terrorists and fanatics,” he said.