Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the motion to recognise Daesh atrocities as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Like previous speakers, I also commend the member for Fowler. Terror inflicted by Daesh is a theatre of jihads within the broader violent jihadist movement, and so we must be ever vigilant that new theatres of jihad will continue to emerge as long as there continues to be unrest and conflict in parts of the Middle East and as long as the ideology of violent jihadism continues to attract individuals prepared to use violence.

I spoke in this chamber last week on the member for Canning's motion noting that that these mujahideen, as they term themselves, will follow the conflict to the next theatre of jihad—as those before them have done. I also spoke of the need to revise the conventional wisdom that Daesh could be defeated by military means alone. Assymetric warfare typically describes a conflict situation in which one side has a strategic advantage because they are willing to use tactics that the other side is either unable or unwilling to use. These tactics have no regard for the conventions of warfare—they indiscriminately target individuals and innocents and constitute crimes against humanity

As a woman, I feel compelled here to speak about the disproportionate suffering of women under the hands of the brutal Daesh. The United Nations, among others, has acknowledged that women and children, by and large, are the most affected by war. Daesh's terror campaign includes rape and sexual enslavement, among other crimes. The plight of the Yazidi women who have been enslaved by Daesh, treated as war booty, used and abused, raped and tortured is but one gross example of Daesh's atrocious war crimes. Those few who have managed to escape have told of unimaginable terror—being sold for a mere few cigarettes, beaten if they refuse or resist and threatened with death should they try to escape. Such is the plight of Yazidis and other religious minorities targeted by Daesh

Before 2003, the Christian population in Iraq numbered 1.4 million. Today, it is estimated at 250,000 and an estimated 3,600 Yazidis—mostly women and children—remain missing, thought to be held captive by Daesh.

It is very clear from the first rising of Daesh that their mission was to establish a religiously pure state. Terrorist organisations that have the goal of religious purity are certainly not new. Having studied the history of terrorism and having written a book about it, I do not think it is a reach to say that Daesh is among the world's most destructive forces, prepared to wipe out all those who do not agree with them.

Daesh are also guilty of cultural genocide, eradicating not only the minorities they target but also systematically destroying their history, their language and their historical sites—both Islamic and non-Islamic. They have destroyed several sites across Iraq, looted Mosul Museum, destroyed the 3,000-year-old Assyrian city of Nimrud, and bulldozed the 2,000-year-old fortress in the city of Hatra and the 2,000-year-old Syrian statues in the ancient city of Palmyra, in what UNESCO refers to as cultural cleansing. The destruction of the relics attacks the heart of the nationalist identities of the peoples in Iraq and Syria. It is purposeful—designed to eradicate borders, both real and cultural, in order to conquer and establish a so-called Islamic State.

There is no easy way to defeat this scourge. Simply going in and bombing them is not enough; we need to also focus our efforts on stopping the spread of their ideology. This is a long war, a long battle, and one which has created one of the worst humanitarian crises the modern world has ever seen. We must understand that Syrians and Iraqis fleeing violence are fleeing Daesh. They are fleeing a conflict in which one side will stop at nothing and will do anything with no regard for human life. They are not fleeing a normal war. This is not the kind of conflict where armies fight against each other on well-worn battlefields. This is asymmetrical warfare, where the currency is human lives and the combatants know no boundaries.

I therefore commend this motion to the House and urge the government to work with the United Nations and member states in holding Daesh accountable for war crimes and genocide.

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