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The British government on Tuesday officially acknowledged that the Islamic State group committed “acts of genocide” against the Yazidi people in 2014.
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The Yazidis — whose pre-Islamic religion made them the target of IS extremists — were subjected to massacres, forced marriages and sex slavery during the jihadists’ 2014-15 rule in the northern Iraq province of Sinjar, the Yazidis’ traditional home.
The UK foreign office made the announcement ahead of events to mark “the nine year anniversary of atrocities” committed by the Islamic State against the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority in Iraq.
“The UK has today formally acknowledged that acts of genocide were committed against the Yazidi people by Daesh in 2014,” the statement said, using another name for IS.
So far, the UK has acknowledged only four other instances where genocide has occurred, the Holocaust, Rwanda, Srebrenica, and acts of genocide in Cambodia.
“The Yazidi population suffered immensely at the hands of Daesh nine years ago and the repercussions are still felt to this day,” UK’s Middle East minister Tariq Ahmad said in the statement.
“Justice and accountability are key for those whose lives have been devastated,” he added.
Murad Ismael, co-founder of global Yazidi organisation Yazda, hailed the UK recognition as an “important step”.
“Acknowledgement is the heart of justice process and helping victims to heal from the deep wounds of this genocide,” he told AFP.
“I am pleased that the UK government has formally recognised the horrors suffered by the Yazidis as genocide”, said Nadia Murad, a Yazidi Nobel Peace Prize Laureate campaigning against the use of sexual violence in war, particularly against the Yazidis.
“I hope that the British government will now begin to seek justice for the victims by holding British-born fighters to account,” she added.
“The world…
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Source : france24
