Campaigners march through London to protest against ISIS attacks on Iraqis and Syrians

 
March: protesters hold placards and photographs (Picture: Twitter/@GhaffarH)
Rachel Blundy16 August 2014

Campaigners have marched through the streets of London to protest against recent attacks on Iraqis and Syrians by ISIS militants.

Hundreds of people gathered outside BBC Broadcasting House before marching through Oxford Street towards the US Embassy.

Demonstrators, led by the Kurdish People's Assembly UK, called on the UK government to boost its support for people suffering in the conflict, particularly members of the Shia, Sufi, Christian and Yezidi communities.

They also want Britain to put diplomatic pressure on countries including Turkey and Qatar, who they argue have been supporting jihadism in the region.

Gathering: protesters outside BBC Broadcasting House (Picture: Twitter/@Dwayne_Menezes)

At least 80 Yazidi men have been killed and women and children abducted by Islamic State forces who seized the village of Kocho on Friday, according to reports.

ISIS fighters besieged the village for several days and gave its residents a deadline to convert to Islam, Yazidi politician Mahma Khalil said today.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">Anti-ISIS march in <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/London?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/hashtag/London?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#London</a> now! <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IS?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/hashtag/IS?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#IS</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iraq?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iraq?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#Iraq</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#ISIS</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&amp;id=222025&amp;p=http://t.co/L6mQnJudbO" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-http://t.co/L6mQnJudbO" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/L6mQnJudbO</a>— B.Gizdavkov (@BGizdavkov) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/BGizdavkov/statuses/500640396918390784" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/BGizdavkov/statuses/500640396918390784" data-vars-event-id="c23">August 16, 2014</a>

"When the residents refused to do this, the massacre took place," he said.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group earlier this month captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. The Yazidis practise an ancient religion that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.

The plight of the Yazidis, tens of thousands of whom were stranded on a desert mountaintop for days, encircled by the Islamic extremists, prompted the US to launch aid lifts as well as airstrikes to help Kurdish fighters get them to safety.

Most of the Yazidis were eventually able to escape to Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region. Some 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting since the Islamic State group's rapid advance across northern and western Iraq began in June.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">LIVE from London: Anti-<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IS?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/hashtag/IS?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#IS</a> demonstration. Peaceful, as demos ought to be. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/HS_Centre" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/HS_Centre" data-vars-event-id="c23">@HS_Centre</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/MsIntervention" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/MsIntervention" data-vars-event-id="c23">@MsIntervention</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/GhaffarH" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/GhaffarH" data-vars-event-id="c23">@GhaffarH</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&amp;id=222025&amp;p=http://t.co/6cwdh5UYTc" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-http://t.co/6cwdh5UYTc" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/6cwdh5UYTc</a>— Dwayne Ryan Menezes (@Dwayne_Menezes) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/Dwayne_Menezes/statuses/500637986447687680" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-195481-https://twitter.com/Dwayne_Menezes/statuses/500637986447687680" data-vars-event-id="c23">August 16, 2014</a>

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Britain - which has so far only been transporting weapons provided by other countries - stood ready to "consider favourably" any request by Kurdish leaders for it to join countries such as the United States and France by directly supplying military equipment.

But speaking after today's protest in London, Julie Lenarz, executive director for London-based foreign policy think-tank the Human Security Centre, described the government's response to the violence as "incoherent".

She said: "Unopposed, mass atrocity crimes - ranging from crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing to forthright genocide - will continue to be committed by ISIS.

"The Iraqi government has proven unable to fulfil its responsibility to protect and the West’s response has been incoherent and fragmented at best. A limited aid and surveillance mission is not an adequate response to the crime of all crimes.”

Additional reporting for PA

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