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Kurdistan Govt calls on British Govt to
recognise mass murder of Iraqi Kurds as genocide
4.7.2012
Kurdistan Regional Government KRG |
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Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir said that recognition
of the genocide helps give closure and obtain
assistance for the victims. KRG photo
Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, KRG High Representative
to the UK. KRG Photo.
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July 4, 2012
LONDON,
UK,— At a reception in Parliament sponsored by Dave
Anderson MP on Monday night, the Kurdistan Regional
Government called on the British Government to
recognise the mass murder of Iraqi Kurds as
genocide.
The reception, which was held on the Terrace at the
Houses of Parliament, saw representatives from the
KRG including Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir, the Head
of the KRG Department of Foreign Relations and Ms
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, KRG High Representative to
the UK, and joined by supportive MPs and Peers,
along with members of the Kurdish community.
The well-attended event was also the official launch
of an e-petition urging the British Government to
recognize the genocide of Iraqi Kurds prior to and
during Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime. The petition
requires 100,000 signatures from the public to
trigger a debate in Parliament.
Robert Halfon, MP and Vice-Chair of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq,
said, “The facts are these: if you define genocide
as scientifically planned mass murder with various
stages of development - notably, marginalisation,
demonisation, and eradication, - then the Kurds
suffered genocide.”
Nadhim Zahawi, MP for Stratford, Co-Chair of the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan and sponsor
of the petition, said, “Genocide is the worst crime
that can be committed by humanity, and it befell
Iraqi Kurds. It is our duty to remember and honour
the victims. The recognition of the genocide by the
British Government is crucial to ensuring that it
never happens again, and this is why I tabled the
e-petition calling on the Government to acknowledge
the Kurdish genocide.”
The KRG Head of Foreign Relations Minister Falah
Mustafa Bakir said, "This is also not just about the
past; the international recognition of these acts as
genocide is important to help give closure and
obtain assistance for the victims now, and to ensure
that these acts are never repeated in the future.
Minister Bakir added, “I would like to extend our
appreciation to the All-Party Parliamentary Group,
and all those who are already supporting this effort
and take this opportunity to ask the rest of you to
join us in this important initiative.”
Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the KRG High
Representative to the UK, said, “The Kurdish nation
is an optimistic one. We are hungry to develop our
economy, society and to revive our agriculture even
if, after the destruction of 4,500 villages, we will
never get back the rural way of life that was the
hallmark of Kurdish culture.
Ms Rahman also said, “We believe in international
friendship, in reconciliation within Iraq and
peaceful co-existence. But we also believe in
justice. And to those who say that we should look
forward and not back, we say that there should be no
time limit on justice for victims of genocide
anywhere.”
Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish men, women and
children were murdered during a systematic attempt
to exterminate the Kurdish population in Iraq from
1963 to the late 1980s. Only after Saddam Hussein
was captured in 2003,www.ekurd.net
were the first of hundreds of mass graves
discovered, and the true scale of the horror
revealed. Nine years later, expert forensic teams
are excavating the mass graves and identifying the
bodies so they can at last be returned home to loved
ones for burial.
To sign the petition, please click here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/31014
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