UK Syrian groups pay tribute to murdered MP

LONDON

The U.K.-based Syria Solidarity groups Friday paid tribute to Labour MP Jo Cox, who lost her life in a shooting and stabbing attack on Thursday.

“Britain’s failure to act in 2013 came in part because politicians allowed the massacres in Syria to become the subject of U.K. party politics. In all of her work on Syria, Labour MP Jo Cox reached out across party lines, working with Conservatives on the need to stop the bombing, and with Liberal Democrats on the need for action to break the sieges,” said a joint statement from the groups.

The statemetn said Cox was not content to settle to just help the victims but instead demanded action to end the crime.

Yasmine Nahlawi, advocacy and policy coordinator for Rethink Rebuild Society, one of the statement signatories, told Anadolu Agency that Cox was “a voice of truth and justice”.

“Jo Cox, MP, was a rare gem, a voice of truth and justice, and a staunch humanitarian and Syria advocate. She represented a beacon of hope for the Syrian community when there was not much hope left for us,” Nahlawi stated.

Cox spent time working in a variety of charity groups. She worked in developing countries and became head of policy at Oxfam. She set up the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of Syria group and appeared in House of Commons debates arguing for the well-being of refugees.

"Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad and the civil war in Syria is, I believe, the greatest test of our generation – it is certainly the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. It is a test that so far, as a party and as a nation, we have failed,” Cox wrote in an article for LabourList in December.