Scottish Catholic Observer

The Crossbench member of the British House of Lords and trustee of Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (UK) criticised David Cameron’s government for being ‘in a state of complete denial’ about the extremists’ violence against Christians, Yazidis and Shiite Muslims.

Lord Alton (above) made his comments after US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday declared that Daesh (ISIS) were ‘genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions.’

The leading British Catholic layman, who has championed the call for genocide since the autumn, said: “At last the US administration has woken up to the targeted murder of these defenceless people.

“What has to happen for the UK Government do the same? They’ve been in a state of complete denial.”

Lord Alton has repeatedly called on the Prime Minster to fulfil the UK’s obligations as a signatory of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, requiring the UK to ‘prevent and punish’ acts of genocide.

“The [UK Government] should take a lead and table a resolution at the [UN] Security Council demanding that signatories to the Genocide Convention accept their double duty to protect and to punish,” Lord Alton told ACN.

ACN fact-finding visits to Iraq and Syria have uncovered widespread acts of Daesh genocide against Christians and other minorities.

The charity found evidence of intent to force Christians out of their homes on pain of death, killings, abductions, notably including clergy, desecration of churches and religious symbols, and hate speech.

Further evidence of genocide of Christians and other minorities was uncovered in ACN’s 2015 Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith, which highlighted ‘religiously-motivated ethnic-cleansing of Christians’ both in the Middle East and parts of Africa.

The report, which in London was launched at a UK Parliamentary meeting chaired by Lord Alton, described an orchestrated effort to force Middle East Christians out of their homelands.

·—To add your support to the petition calling on the UK Government to recognise the genocide of Christians, Yazidis and other minorities, go to https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/120287

—www.acnuk.org

PIC: Weenson Oo_picture-u.net