"Take real action to prevent genocide and starvation".
« Whether it was the occupation of Georgia, whether it was the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and of course Gaza... If we keep allowing for occupation and we keep allowing for starvation and genocide, we are going to see it more often. Conclit is the main cause of hunger. I’m seeing food being used more and more as a tool of war. The people that suffer the most are always children. The images of starvation in Gaza are unbearable and you are doing nothing. You talk and you talk and you talk. You give us lovely words. HRC hasn't even tried to pass a resolution. At least they are trying in NY. How is it that the HRC is not addressing a situation where we have never seen a civilian population go so hungry so completely? In anytime in modern history, we have never seen children pushed into malnutrition so quickly. This is on your watch. Please turn your words into action. We have heard the call for cease-fire. We know what we need is unhindered humanitarian access. You know what needs to be done. If I can speak to you as individuals, as human beings. I understand the constraints you have of your capital. I understand politics. Arms embargo. Stop sending weapons and money to Israel. Those countries that are sending weapons are complicit in genocide and starvation.... It's time for sanctions. Real action, real pressure. This is what ended apartheid in South Africa, this is what put pressure on the fascist regime in Portugal... ».
The illegal and inhumane blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, the starvation of its people by Azerbaijan between December 2022 and September/October 2023 and the inaction of the international community led to the full ethnic cleaning of this historic Armenian region in the fall of 2023.
For months, during the 10 month-long blockade of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), NGOs like Hyestart have called for sanctions against Azerbaijan and an international airlift to save Nagorno-Karabakh and to prevent its ethnic cleansing. In vain. Lovely words were uttered. Yuri Kim of the US state department said that the US would not tolerate ethnic cleansing in Nagorno Karabakh(1). The ICC issued a supposedly binding ruling ordering Azerbaijan to lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor (2). But in the end no real action was taken. And ethnic cleansing was allowed to happen.
Impunity, which ensures the continuity of the crimes and denies the victims the right to see justice done, must end.