French Fm Urges Un To Address Minorities İn Iraq, Syria

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday asked UN Secretary-General to present a detailed roadmap to address minorities in Iraq and Syria.



"There is truly a danger that minorities will disappear entirely. The international community cannot let that happen," Fabius told a Security Council session on minorities in the Middle East.



He called on UN chief Ban Ki-moon to present to the Security Council an "action charter" structured around humanitarian support, military action, political efforts and combating impunity.



"We must show the minorities of the Middle East that we are standing beside them and beside the states that respect diversity," he said. "And to the terrorists of Daesh, that we will fight them tirelessly and defeat them."



Of the more than 2 million displaced in Iraq since January 2014, a disproportionate number are from ethnic and religious minorities, including Assyrians, Turkmens and Yezidis, according to a report by Minority Rights Group International.



A March 17 report by the United Nations said Daesh may have committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in its attacks against ethnic and religious groups in the country.



The terror group seeks to establish a caliphate straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, erasing national boundaries drawn by Europeans in the wake of World War I. The group captured Iraq's second city of Mosul last June and surged across large swathes of land in northern Iraq and Syria, taking control of a number of predominantly Sunni cities.



For his part, Ban said violent extremism in Iraq preceded Daesh's advance and urged the international community to address the underlying conditions.



"The atrocity crimes in the region demand an urgent response," he said. "We must end impunity for those committing serious crimes against any and all humanities."



He said the lack of accountability had led to an exponential rise in crimes against humanity by the Syrian government and groups such as Daesh and Jabhat al Nusra.



"I urge the international community, particularly the Security Council, to overcome differences and seek new ways to ensure the protection of all Syrian civilians," he said.



The Syrian civil war entered its fifth year earlier this month, having killed more than 220,000 people, according to the UN.



www.aa.com.tr/en - New York