UN conference hears experts, witnesses, survivors call for global response to genocide

Faith groups are attacked, Christians specifically targeted for elimination.

Sheila Liaugminas | May 3 2016 | comment

Faith groups are attacked, Christians specifically targeted for elimination.

World leaders, governments, international organizations and human rights champions have risen the threat and awareness level in recent months over crises that have been occurring for years out of sight and largely off public radar. Now there’s a new urgency, and some leading voices are asking if it’s coming in time to make a difference.

That’s only one concern expressed at last weekend’s International Congress on Religious Freedom in New York, a three day event that opened Thursday with a U.N. conference sponsored by the Vatican’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Presenters included people who experienced or witnessed atrocities being committed against religious minorities.

Led by remarks from Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the U.N., the event had an intensely sensitive agenda.

That, I can vouch for, having attended all of it.

The world’s greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II is unfolding today in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and Iraq have lost their lives, entire communities have been displaced or wiped out, while neighboring communities or nations have strained to accept millions of people fleeing years of war and terrorism. We face the very real prospect of the extinction of many of the communities indigenous to the region.

Anderson gave background and findings of a nearly 300 page report his organization and In Defense of Christians submitted to the State Department and Congress in March, documenting atrocities and extensive evidence of genocide in the region.

And it showed that terms like ‘religious cleansing’, or ‘crimes against humanity’ are by themselves inadequate to describe both the magnitude of the tragedy and the clear intent of the perpetrators. The State Department’s declaration of genocide on March 17th marked only the second time that such a determination had been made by the U.S. government while the crime is occurring.

And then he added

Isis and the victims we interviewed agreed on one thing, many of those targeted were targeted because of their Christian faith…Our recent fact-finding mission to Iraq found evidence of (atrocities including) murder, slavery, property confiscation and expulsion. Many of the incidents have not been previously reported. But based on what we learned, it is our impression that what we know today is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg.

Anderson was only the first of the speakers, and his testimony set the tone for a powerful, intensive, collaborative witness to what Pope Francis calls a “third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing”, which he called genocide, adding “I insist on the word”.

In Rome, the Trevi Fountain was lit red, in commemoration of Christian martyrdom, and mass execution of other religious minorities, to call the Western world to attention. Sitting through the UN conference on it, hearing powerful testimony, expert reports and stunning witness, I hope and pray it worked. The event in New York certainly seemed to mark a turning point

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Not that I am a sports tragic, but I follow a policy of always supporting the underdog. Consequently I feel pretty morose whenever I take a look at the sports pages.

This year I have taken a keen interest in the fortunes of Leicester in the English Premier League. A classic underdog: always at the bottom of the table, barely escaping relegation to a lower league, a joke. The team's Italian manager, Claudio Ranieri, joined the club after just four months as manager of the Greek national team. He was sacked after Greece (population 10,955,000) lost to Faroe Islands (population 49,709). At home, too. Not a good look for Signor Ranieri -- or his players.

The odds of Leicester winning the Premier League were 5000 to 1.

Last night Leicester won.

It was one of the biggest upsets in sporting history. A down-on-its-heels club, with a shopworn manager, a few bargain-basement players from overseas, and some unlikely local lads, beat Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U, Totenham, Arsenal ... all the big boys. It was the ultimate in underdog oneupsmanship.

So I may switch my allegiance to Aston Villa. After a season of unprecedented awfulness, they have been relegated. The Villans, possibly the worst side in Premier League history, are my kind of team.