Der har været uenighed i Storbritannien om synet på ISs overgreb på yazidierne.
Debatten i regeringen
Den britiske regering ønskede ikke i april 2016 at støtte en parlamentsbeslutning om at betegne overgrebene som et forsøg på folkedrab.
Under debatten i Underhuset onsdag d. 20. april 2016 blev viceudenrigsminister Swayne spurgt, om han ville anerkende overgrebene som et folkedrab. I sit afslag henviser han til, at IS ikke er en stat, der har skrevet under på 1948-konventionen mod folkedrab:
Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op): Would the Minister describe what is happening to the Yazidis as genocide?
Mr Swayne: I believe that the decision as to what constitutes genocide is properly a judicial one. The International Criminal Court correspondent, Fatou Bensouda, has decided that, as Daesh is not a state party, this does not yet constitute genocide.
Fordømmelsen af ISs overgreb set som et forsøg på folkedrab blev imidlertid vedtaget enstemmigt i det engelske parlament Underhuset. Vedtagelsen:
“Resolved, That this House believes that Christians, Yazidis, and other ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria are suffering genocide at the hands of Daesh; and calls on the Government to make an immediate referral to the UN Security Council with a view to conferring jurisdiction upon the International Criminal Court so that perpetrators can be brought to justice.”
Læs mere (publications.parliament.uk).
Debatten i medierne
Engelsk avisdebat om emnet (theguardian.com).
Lord Alton, engelsk parlamentariker. Interview i det engelske dagblad The Guardian, 19. april 2016:
“Parliament – as Congress and the European parliament have done – needs to force the government’s hand. Otherwise we might as well rip up the genocide convention as a worthless piece of paper. If what is happening to groups like the Yazidis and Assyrian Christians doesn’t meet the high technical standard of what constitutes a genocide, it’s hard to imagine what would.”
I The Guardian har kommentatoren Giles Frazier dette syn på hvorfor den engelske regering ikke vil støtte fordømmelsen af ISs overgreb som et folkemord eller på engelsk ’genocide’ (the ’g’ word, som det omtales som i dette citat):
“But there may be more to it than a technical problem of process. For it may not be any coincidence that Turkey is our new best friend, with whom we have struck a deal over returning refugees from Greece. And Turkey is profoundly allergic to the “g” word, reminding people, as it often does, of Turkey’s genocide of the Armenian people in 1915, the first genocide of the 20th century. Not only that, but many of the threatened Yazidis, for example, are supported by the Kurds and Kurdish pashmerga who are seen as terrorists by the Turkish government. The suspicion is that our Foreign Office doesn’t want to upset the Turks with tomorrow’s vote and are thus encouraging the government to whip against it on a technicality.”