On Tuesday, the British government officially acknowledged that the Islamic terror outfit Islamic State committed ‘acts of genocide’ against the Yazidi people in 2014.
The Yazidis, whose pre-Islamic religion made them the target of the Islamic terror outfit, were subjected to massacres, forced marriages, and sex slavery during the Islamic jihadists’ 2014–15 rule in the northern Iraqi province of Sinjar, the Yazidis’ traditional home.
“The UK has today formally acknowledged that acts of genocide were committed against the Yazidi people by Daesh in 2014,” the UK foreign office said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS, a previous name of the Islamic terror outfit.
The only other instances of genocide that the UK has recognised are 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.
Murad Ismael, co-founder of the global Yazidi organisation Yazda, told AFP that acknowledgment is at the heart of the justice process and helps victims heal from the deep wounds of this genocide.
“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.
“The world cannot afford to let ISIS members walk free. It sends a message to the world that you can murder and rape with impunity,” she added.
