Today the survivors are bravely re-building their lives and their homes. But to truly look to the future, they need to come to terms with the horror they have endured. To do this, they need international recognition of the barbaric atrocities inflicted on them.
The Kurdistan Regional government, and its supporters in the UK including the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan Region, are now calling for recognition of what happened to our people.
Today, British MPs will call on their government to recognise the mass murder of Iraqi Kurds as genocide, and will officially launch an e-petition which we would urge every British citizen to sign.
We realise that genocide is understood by most to be the gravest crime against humanity it is possible to commit, and that it is no small thing to ask the British government to recognise our treatment under Saddam as genocide.
But only through recognition can the survivors achieve justice for those who died, and for themselves, the survivors, who continue to bear the physical and mental scars and in doing so move forward with their lives
If such recognition could lead to prevention of similar crimes; if it could raise awareness among the international community; if it could help to identify and punish the remaining perpetrators, then it is worth pursuing. We realise that it will require hard work, long-term commitment, and considerable resources. However, we believe that the international community has a moral commitment to recognise these types of crimes. We believe, and hope that the international community has adopted the principle of responsibility to protect populations at risk, and will be more prepared to prevent such crimes in the future.
There is an old saying in Kurdistan: “Kurds have no friends but the mountains.” We hope that the British government will disprove this. We need to gather 100,000 signatures. We hope yours will be one of them.
If you are resident in the UK or a British citizen, you can sign the online petition to recognise the Kurdish Genocide here.
The full article can be read at http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/falah-mustafa-bakir/justice-for-iraqi-kurds_b_1642620.html?view=print
