The brutal and savage onslaught by Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria continued to dominate the news last week, especially with the many reports emerging of war crimes committed by this terrorist organisation (or rather, terrorist State) against the Christian and Yazidi minorities in Iraq.
Thousands of Christians and Yazidis fled their homes as IS militants seized their cities and gave them a choice of converting to Islam or being executed. Many hundreds, including women and children, were executed by the jihadists in the most savage of ways, such as beheadings, crucifixions and being buried alive, and of women being raped and captured as sex slaves.
Thousand of Yazidis, furthermore, were trapped in sweltering conditions on Mount Sinjar, after they fled IS advances. Many received humanitarian aid from the US, UK and France, and thankfully most of them managed to escape to safety thanks to a rescue operation co-ordinated by the US, which included American airstrikes against IS.
There is no doubt that Islamic State, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has now emerged as the number one security threat not only to the entire region but also to the Western world. They presently control vast areas of territory in Iraq and Syria – which they have declared to be a ‘caliphate’, they have made incursions into Lebanon and have declared their intention to destabilise Jordan and Turkey.
Thousands of the IS militants, furthermore, are foreigners with European (even Australian) passports, which means they could well return ‘home’ determined to carry out acts of terrorism after being radicalised in Iraq and Syria. This should be of major concern to the international community, particularly the EU.
The US has so far led the international response to IS. President Barack Obama took the right decision to authorise airstrikes against the jihadists and to provide those minorities displaced by IS with humanitarian aid. France and Britain have also provided humanitarian aid, and the US and France have agreed to provide the Kurds – who face being over-run by the jihadists – with arms.
The EU met at an emergency foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Friday where it approved the shipment of arms by individual member states to the Kurds, the UN – which estimates that 200,000 new refugees have been created in this latest onslaught by IS – has declared the Iraqi situation as a ‘level 3 emergency’ (the highest level, putting it on par with Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic), and the US has sent more military advisers to Erbil, the capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Malta should offer asylum to a limited number of Iraqi Christians
It is essential that a concerted international effort takes place to defeat IS, which threatens the viability of Iraq as a State, has the potential to destabilise the entire region and whose cruel and savage reign of terror is comparable to that of the Khmer Rouge and the Nazis. The news that the UN Security Council has approved a resolution aimed at punishing the recruitment and financing of foreign fighters for IS is certainly welcome.
Other countries besides the US should also consider limited airstrikes against IS and provide logistical support to the Iraqi army and arms to the Kurds; they should also consider sending special forces (Britain’s SAS is believed to already be in Iraq) to help the Iraqi military in select operations. Turkey, for example, should play an active role in helping to defeat IS, even if it means directly helping the Kurds, with whom it has had a difficult past, to put it mildly.
The EU also needs to show more solidarity to Iraq’s persecuted minorities and should follow France’s example of offering asylum to the country’s Christians. Malta, which prides itself on its Christian heritage and which has been remarkably silent over these war crimes, should offer asylum to a limited number of Iraqi Christians. Such a token act would show our solidarity with the Christians of Iraq in their hour of need.
It is also important for the whole international community, especially the Muslim world, to condemn IS’s war crimes and acts of genocide. Pope Francis recently wrote to the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, where he condemned the violent persecutions under way in Iraq and called on the UN to act swiftly to stop the humanitarian disaster taking place.
Significantly, the Vatican has called on Muslims leaders to condemn the persecution of minorities in Iraq. The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue called on all religious leaders, especially Muslims, to directly condemn the attacks and the jihadists and their “unspeakable criminal acts”. A statement by the Pontifical Council says that “no cause and no religion can justify such barbarity”.
Besides military action and humanitarian relief, however, it is essential that an inclusive government is formed in Iraq which truly represents all the people of the country and addresses the concerns of Sunnis and Kurds. The fact that Iraqi President Fuad Masum chose Haider al-Abadi, the deputy Speaker of Parliament, to replace Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister, is to be welcomed.
The news that Maliki has now resigned, after resisting earlier pressure to do so, is also encouraging. Maliki’s sectarian policies had alienated the Kurds and drove a number of Sunni tribes into the arms of the jihadists. The writing was on the wall for Maliki, however, as he was losing support from his traditional allies. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leader of Iraq’s Shi’ites, had suggested that Maliki should step aside; Iran, the Iraqi military and many of Maliki’s Shi’ite allies also lost patience with the Prime Minister, as did the US.
Hopefully Abadi will be able to earn the respect of all of Iraq’s people and will unite the country in the battle against IS.