ANNUAL R2P MINISTERIAL MEETING: UN STABILIZATION MISSION FOR ARAMEANS OF IRAQ
Amsterdam, 12 September 2014
In light of the upcoming Annual Ministerial Meeting regarding the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), organized by the Global Centre for the R2P, the WCA has sent out a letter to the organization and all supporting States who will attend the meeting. In its letter, the WCA once again reiterated the need for a UN Stabilization Mission for the Arameans of Iraq.
The letter has also been sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and his Special Advisors on the Prevention of Genocide and R2P.
UN General Assembly 6th Interactive Dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect (8 September 2014)
Your Excellency,
Due to the abrupt withdrawal and impotence of the Iraqi and Kurdish armies, Iraq’s native Aramean Christians recently faced genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity. Therefore, we call your immediate attention to this alarming situation and ask you to take this particular case into consideration during the upcoming annual Responsibility to Protect Ministerial Meeting.
On 8 September, at the UN General Assembly Informal Interactive Dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect, You avowed: “turning a blind eye to these acts is no longer tenable. Our responsibility to prevent and protect is collective and urgent.”
There is now a critical need to prevent the IS from exterminating Iraq’s vulnerable and threatened minorities, such as the Arameans who have a documented presence of more than 3,000 years in the region. In our letter of 7 August, and reiterated at the 22nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 1 September, we urged the UN Security Council to adopt a clear resolution that affirms
“protection and security by a United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission, similar to the one in Mali, according to the legal principle of Responsibility to Protect that is inevitably imposing itself now on the international community in the case of the Aramean people and other [vulnerable] minorities of Iraq.”
In accordance with international law and justice, we trust that Your Excellency and your respected colleagues will consider our urgent call for intervention to ensure our survival in our homeland.
Yours sincerely,
Johny Messo
President
World Council of Arameans (Syriacs)
Photo: UN News Centre