Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

BBC News

UK welcomes UN pressure on Islamic State

Britain has welcomed a UN resolution designed to weaken Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

The United Nations Security Council gave unanimous approval to the document, which was drawn up by the UK.

It backed sanctions on individuals recruiting, financing, supplying weapons, or fighting for Islamic State (IS) and linked groups.

The UK Ministry of Defence has revealed that its Joint Rivet surveillance aircraft has been operating in Iraq.

'Immense courage'

The reconnaissance plane had been operating in the region for the last few weeks, a spokeswoman said, helping to "build an understanding of the humanitarian situation... and the associated ISIL (also known as IS) threat".

"The intelligence and insight it has provided has guided our humanitarian efforts giving us an accurate picture of what is going on the ground so that we could best deliver aid to the Yazidi people," she added.

British aid planes carrying cooking equipment to enable 40,000 refugees to feed themselves arrived in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, earlier.

Almost 8,000 sets including cutlery, plates and frying pans will be distributed by the UN to people in the Dahuk region displaced by violence.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: "They have shown immense courage... and the UK is committed to giving them support.

"These kitchen sets will enable displaced people to feed themselves and their families."

The militants' rise has seen an estimated 1.2 million people driven from their homes, prompting the UN to declare its highest level of emergency in the country.

Link to full article & BBC Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28816970

[Anthea]

Iraq crisis: 'Aid at last' for youngest refugees

1 hour ago

Humanitarian aid is being distributed to hundreds of thousands of Yazidi people, fleeing Islamic militants in Northern Iraq.

Unicef representative Marzio Babille told the BBC it was one of the largest humanitarian responses he had seen in 50 years.

He said: "We need more international partners stepping forward and multiplying camps, food distribution, water distribution to a level of dignity that the United Nations aspires to."

Caroline Wyatt reports from to Dohuk, where 80,000 refugees have arrived in the last 10 days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28817256

[Anthea]

Sky News

Islamic Fighters 'Kill 400 And Take Families'

A second massacre is reported in a village occupied by Yazidis, thousands of whom have already fled the Islamic State advance.

More than 400 Yazidi men have been killed and their families abducted by militants in northern Iraq, local officials have said.

A senior official at the Ministry of Peshmerga, in the Kurdish-controlled region of the country, told Sky News women and children had been seized by fighters from Islamic State (IS), also known as Islamic State In Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and taken to Tal Afar, near Mosul.

The men from the village of Kocho were reportedly killed over two days - 82 on Friday and another 312 on Saturday.

Earlier, Yazidi fighter Mohsen Tawwal told AFP by telephone that he had seen a large number of bodies after entering the village.

"We made it into a part of Kocho village, where residents were under siege, but we were too late," he said.

"There were corpses everywhere. We only managed to get two people out alive. The rest had all been killed."

Thousands of Yazidis - people from a minority sect with an ancient religion - have been forced to flee their homes by the IS advance across northern Iraq.

IS has swept across a large part of northern and central Iraq, seizing Mosul and threatening Baghdad and the Kurdish capital Irbil.

On Saturday, airstrikes targeted the group around Mosul Dam. IS seized the dam, Iraq's largest, on August 7.

The Ministry of Defence said it deployed a US-made spy plane over the north of the country to monitor the humanitarian crisis and the movements of IS fighters.

The converted Boeing KC-135 tanker - called a Rivet Joint - is monitoring mobile phone calls and other communications.

Two British planes landed in the Kurdish regional capital Irbil on Saturday, carrying humanitarian supplies.

Iraq's human rights minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani said militants had killed at least 500 members of the Yazidi community.

Some of the victims, including women and children, were buried alive, he added.

Some 1.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting since the IS advance began in June.

It comes after the UN Security Council blacklisted six Islamist militants on Friday and threatened sanctions against anyone who helped arm or supply them.

http://news.sky.com/story/1319847/islam ... e-families

[Anthea]

AL ARABIYA INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES

What you did not know about Iraq’s Yazidi minority

Yazidis in Iraq face the threat of genocide following recent developments in which the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria took over Sinjar and expelled Kurdish Peshmerga forces from them.

Who are the Yazidis? Is it a religion on its own or a sect of Muslims who lost their way like many Arab authors pictured them for centuries?

The Yazidi minority in Iraq is an ethno-religious community that practices an ancient religion linked to Zoroastrianism. They recently made headlines after their cities north of the country - like Sinjar - fell in the hands of ISIS fighters. These cities were under the control of Kurdish Peshmerga forces but after ISIS seized control and expelled these forces, Yazidis had to flee for their lives.

Yazidis used to be situated in the north and northwest of Iraq, particularly in the area surrounding the Sinjar mountains, west of Mosul, and the Shekhan district, northeast of Mosul. They were also present in the surroundings of Tell Kayf and Bashiqa and the districts of Zakho and Semel in the Dohuk governorate. They are one of the oldest ethno-religious communities in Iraq as their roots date back to thousands of years in the history of Mesopotamia.

Behind the name

This community's name "Yazidi" has stirred controversy and confusion and developed a stereotype on the nature of their beliefs. The term "Yazidi" means "the servant of the creator" and is not linked to Yazid Bin Muawiya like many believe.

There are no official statistics on their numbers in Iraq but Yazidis say their population in Iraq alone exceeds 560,000. Their secular and religious leader is an emir, or prince, and he resides in the city of Ain Sifni in the Shekhan district. Their current emir is Tahseen Said and he's head of the world's Yazidi Supreme Spiritual Council.

Spiritual leader

Their spiritual leader is a "Baba Sheikh" and he's tantamount to the Christians' pope. The current "Baba Sheikh" is Khurto Hajj Ismail and he also resides in Ain Sifni. He's considered to be in charge of religious issues and legislations which are made following a consensus among the spiritual council members and upon the emir's approval.

Yazidis have throughout history confronted several challenges including the fact that areas in which they inhabit lie within the "disputed lands" between the central Iraqi government and the Kurdistan government.

Other challenges are related to their community social structure and cultural isolation because they does not allow marriage outside the community. Also, the Yazidi castes marry only within their group.

In addition to these challenges, Yazidis have confronted several accusations and stereotypes since Islamic conquests of Iraq. The repercussions of these accusations continue to this very day as several modern researchers picture them as bandits, stubborn rebels, devil worshippers and infidels.

During the Ottoman role, there were attempts to force them into converting to Islam and fatwas (religious edicts) categorizing them as a heretical group were issued against Yazidis.

Yazidis thus survived around 72 genocides as they upheld a religion amidst a pure Muslim atmosphere. They were harshly persecuted on the religious and nationalistic levels. In addition to the Ottomans' attempts to force them into Islam, there were attempts to forcefully "Arabize" them during the phase of national governance in Iraq's modern history from 1921-2003.

Worrisome future

The future of Yazidis in Iraq seems worrisome as ISIS has sanctioned shedding their blood and enslaving their women.

Yazidis' current fears increase as political Islam powers rise in the region. The idea of the rise of extremist Islamic movements in Iraq's Kurdistan terrifies Yazidis and pushes them to maintain their religious privacy because they are different from Kurds on a religious level although they share the same ethnicity.

Yazidis' and other religious minorities' fears of losing their identity encourages young people in the community to consider immigration or isolate themselves even further thus developing a terrified and defensive identity.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspec ... rity-.html

[Anthea]

[Piling]

'How many genocides do Kurds have to go through?' - video

As the Yazidi crisis continues on Mount Sinjar, Bayan Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan regional government high representative to the UK, speaks with Dr Zuhair Al-Naher, of the Islamic Dawa Party :

http://www.channel4.com/news/isis-is-ya ... njar-kurds

[Anthea]

'How many genocides do Kurds have to go through?' - video

As the Yazidi crisis continues on Mount Sinjar, Bayan Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan regional government high representative to the UK, speaks with Dr Zuhair Al-Naher, of the Islamic Dawa Party :

http://www.channel4.com/news/isis-is-ya ... njar-kurds

phpBB [video]

[Anthea]

Disabled Yazidi boy found by Kurdish abandoned in middle of Iraqi desert in temperatures up to 50C
By John Hall for MailOnline

Unidentified child was discovered in desert near Sinjar by Kurdish fighters
Doctors believe he was lying on his back staring at sun for up to 24 hours
Paralysis meant he was unable to shield eyes or move to a sheltered spot
Now being treated in hospital for eye damage but is expected to recover
Parents' location remains unknown - as does reason they abandoned him
Thought likely to have left him behind in panic as ISIS militants shot at them

A disabled Yazidi boy has been rescued from certain death in the Iraqi desert after his parents were left with no choice but to abandon him as ISIS militants forced them to flee their home.

The unidentified child, who appears to be about three years old, is paralysed down one side of his body and was found by Kurdish fighters in the desert outside the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq.

Doctors believe he was left lying on his back without shelter in 50C temperatures for up to a day, and - due to his paralysis - was unable to move himself to shelter his eyes from the blazing sun.

The boy's plight was revealed in a video by the BBC's World Affairs correspondent Paul Wood.

The child is now receiving treatment in an unidentified hospital in northern Iraq and is expected to survive - although he may have long-lasting or possibly even permanent damage to his eyesight.

Doctors say his eyes dried out after spending up to 24 hours staring directly into the sun because his disability meant he was unable to turn his body to face in a different direction.

It is not known exactly why the young boy was abandoned, or where his parents are now,

Some at the hospital believe his mother may have had to make the heartbreaking choice of which child to leave behind when she became too weak to carry them as the family escaped ISIS.

One refugee has put forward the view that the boy's mother dropped him and ran off in a panic when ISIS militants began firing at their group.

News of the boy's discovery comes amid increasing concern for up to 1,500 Yazidi women currently being held by ISIS.

There are fears that many are being forced to convert to Islam and marry their abductors after witnesses in the town of Sinjar said younger women had been separated from the main group.

Up to 3,000 women and girls have been kidnapped by the jihadis in the north of Iraq in just a fortnight - and hundreds of men who refuse to convert to Islam are understood to have been massacred.

The kidnappings appear to have happened in villages where residents took up arms against ISIS - and the women are being held separately from the men in IS-controlled Tal Afar, east of Mount Sinjar.

Some 200,000 people escaped to safety in Iraq's Kurdish region, but others remain on the mountain.

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response adviser, told the Agence France-Presse news agency: ‘The victims are of all ages, from babies to elderly men and women.’

‘It seems they took away entire families, all those who did not manage to flee. We fear the men may have been executed.’

Two women - Leila Khalaf and Wadhan Khalaf - were among those kidnapped from Mujamma Jazira village, said their relative Dakhil Atto Solo.

He added that the abductions happened after residents tried to resist the IS attack, telling AFP: ‘Of course we tried to defend our villages, but they had much bigger weapons.

‘All we had were our Kalashnikovs. They executed 300 men, and took the women to their prisons. Only God can save them now.’ Their children, said Mr Solo, were rescued by the family.

But the women were in a house surrounded by IS. We had to escape. Now, the children cry for their mothers all the time. "Mama, mama," they wail. But there is no mama, we tell them.’

His comments on the dire situation came as Islamic extremists shot dead scores of Yazidi men, lining them up in small groups and opening fire with assault rifles before seizing their wives and children.

A Yazidi politician cited the mass killing in Kocho as evidence that his people were still at risk after a week of US and Iraqi air strikes on the militants.

Meanwhile, warplanes targeted insurgents around a large dam that was captured by the IS extremist group earlier this month.

US Central Command said the strikes were launched under the authority to support humanitarian efforts in Iraq, as well as to protect US staff and facilities.

Central Command says the nine air strikes conducted so far had destroyed or damaged four armoured personnel carriers, seven armed vehicles, two Humvees and an armoured vehicle.

Link to Article Video and Pictures:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... s-50C.html

[Anthea]

Daily Mail

'They started to put people in those holes, those people were alive': Yazidi survivor's horror story reveals how ISIS threw screaming women and children into mass graves

Survivor's account describes women and children being buried alive
Tens of thousands of Yazidis have fled their homeland under persecution
The refugees now sit idle in camps in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq
By Corey Charlton for MailOnline

Refugee Samo Ilyas Ali has nine children to feed but he can't focus on the future because the sounds of women and children crying out for help while being buried alive by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq often consume his mind.

Tens of thousand of Yazidis fled their ancient homeland of Sinjar and other villages to escape a dramatic push by the Sunni militants who regard the ethnic minority as devil worshippers who must embrace their radical version of Islam or die.

The refugees sit idle in camps in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Traumatized by Islamic State militants notorious for beheadings and mass executions, they have simply given up on Iraq and want to go as far away as possible; to countries like Germany, worlds away from their mysterious customs.

U.S. air strikes against Islamic State positions and vows by Kurdish commanders to recapture Yazidi villages provided no reassurances.

It's easy to see why.

Ten days ago, Ali and his fellow villagers were suddenly surrounded by Islamic State militants with machine guns at night. They had long beards. Some had face masks and Arabic writing on the sides of their heads.

Absent from the scene were Kurdish peshmerga, or 'those who confront death', fighters who had held parts of the north and were seen as the only force that could stand up to Islamic State after thousands of U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers fled their advance, leaving them with heavy weapons including tanks

Suddenly the men began digging ditches - soon to become mass graves.

'We did not understand. Then they started to put people in those holes, those people were alive,' said former grocery shop owner Ali, 46, pausing to weep.

'After a while we heard gunfire. I can't forget that scene. Women, children, crying for help. We had to run for our lives, there was nothing to be done for them.'

It was not possible to independently verify these accounts.

Some of the Yazidis escaped with the help of Turkish and Syrian Kurdish fighters. But similar scenes are reported in several parts of the north.

In some of the most recent bloodshed, militants massacred at least 80 Yazidi men in Kawju village because they refused to convert to Islam, Iraqi officials said. Women and children were abducted.

Islamic State seemed most intent on killing members of Iraq's majority Shi'ite sect, which it considers to be heretical. During Islamic State's latest offensive in the north, minority Yazidis and Christians have suffered the most.

The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.

Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.

Now they feel helpless again. Fellow Kurds abandoned them. Iraq has a new prime minister who is seen as moderate and may be less inclined to engage in disputes with the Kurds over budgets and oil than his predecessor, perhaps bringing political stability that could benefit the north.

But many Yazidis have lost faith in Iraq and its leaders. They have few options. Some complained that Kurdish forces would not let them travel to Turkey.

So for now, it seems all they can do is wait, and try to forget what caused them to flee their homes.

'They put women and children under the ground. They were alive. I still hear their screams. They were trying to keep their heads up to keep breathing,' said car repairman Dawud Hassan, 26.

'Iraq is finished for me. We had houses, shops, they all burnt our things. We have nothing. We want to cross to Turkey but the peshmerga is not letting us. We will not stay there, we want to go to Europe.'

It is not clear if Iraqi government forces or peshmerga will manage to claw back territory and then hold it - something that could help Yazidis believe in their country again.

Islamic State is getting more ambitious. It has already grabbed much of the north and resources such as oil fields that will help fund its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Some Yazidis, like Hassan, 22, a student, shake their heads in disbelief when recalling how only foreign Kurdish fighters from Turkey or Syria extended a lifeline in the face of Islamic State.

'They tied the hands of one woman to the back of a car and her legs to another car and they split her into two,' he said beside makeshift tents as women cried.

'Have you seen anything like this? This is all because she is not Muslim and did not want to be converted. We barely made it.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... raves.html

[Anthea]

Remember the actions of the Islamic State are designed to spread fear

There are so many conflicts taking place in Iraq at the moment it is becoming increasingly more difficult to confirm exact details

With regards to Sinjar we do know for certain that many hundreds - probably thousands - of Yezidis have been slaughtered by the bloodthirsty members of the Islamic State - nobody kept count

RIP

[Anthea]

The Guardian

Australians helped the Yazidis in the 1920s – and can do so again

Some eight decades ago, Australian relief workers helped the Yazidi community. We now have to send a clear message: we will still not turn our backs on the suffering and the displaced
Judith Crispin and Vicken Babkenian

A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Iraq. The United Nations estimates that more than half a million Yazidi and Christian refugees have fled the crisis at Mount Sinjar to seek refuge in Kurdistan’s capital.

Despite recent American claims that the siege of Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq has been broken, Yazidi leaders and UN humanitarian officials have confirmed today that tens of thousands of Yazidis remain stranded on the southern side of the mountain – where US helicopters cannot land. Iraqi MP Ms Dakhil estimates the number of Yazidis still trapped in the vicinity of Mount Sinjar at around 40,000.

American planes have dropped enough food on Mount Sinjar for around 8,000 people. “The crisis on Mount Sinjar is by no means over,” said David Swanson, the spokesman for the UN co-ordinator of humanitarian affairs in northern Iraq, interviewed by telephone from Dohuk, in northern Iraq. “Although many people managed to escape from the north side, there are still thousands of others up there, under conditions of extreme heat, dehydration and imminent threat of attack. The situation is far from solved.”

Although airdrops have provided some desperately needed medical supplies and food, much of the promised international humanitarian aid has failed to materialise. Without immediate help hundreds, if not thousands, of people will die on Mount Sinjar and as refugees en route to Kurdistan.

In the wake of Australia’s response to the 2004 Tsunami, defence force chief general (now governor general) Peter Cosgrove remarked that values such as “compassion and generosity” are part of our “nation’s national character”.

Indeed, Australia’s first world war experience in the Middle East was not just defined by military heroism but of humanitarianism. In early 1918, Anzac light horsemen and cameelers helped rescue thousands of destitute Armenian refugees when they captured Palestine. In a touching display of humanity amid the horrors of war, lieutenant colonel Arthur J Mills of the 4th (Anzac) Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps, carried a four year old Armenian girl sleeping in his arms, on his camel, to safety.

Another spectacular rescue effort was spearheaded by Australian Colonel Stanley G Savige. As a member of the élite Dunsterforce, Savige and his colleagues defended a column of some 80,000 Armenian and Assyrian refugees fleeing the invading Ottoman Army in Mesopotamia during the summer of 1918. Savige was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his role in the rescue effort.

Back home, with the support of many prominent Australian political, civic, religious and business leaders an Armenian relief fund was established in 1915. The relief effort culminated in an Australian run orphanage in Lebanon for 1,700 Armenian orphan victims of the great war. The institution was described at the time as “thoroughly Australian as if it stood in one of the streets of Melbourne or Sydney”, and one “which the people of this country may feel justifiable pride”.

Many prominent Australian women were at the forefront of the relief effort. They included Australian Red Cross leader, Eleanor Mackinnon, and Sydney feminist Edith Glanville. During the great war, Glanville was involved in patriotic duty as secretary of the Australian soldier’s comforts fund. Her son Leigh of the 1st Battalion of the AIF was killed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and it was because of this tragic event she became interested in humanitarianism and world peace.

In the late 1920s, Glanville travelled several times to the Middle East as a relief worker. During her travels, she became perhaps the first Australian woman to visit the Yazide community of Iraq. In a welcoming message to her, the leader of the Yazidis stated “The English are our friends”, for they had “stopped the persecution of my people”. Edith found the Yazidis to be “very hospitable, and apparently peaceful and industrious, and as they certainly are amongst the most picturesque figures in this land of ancient faiths and forgotten beginnings”. Glanville visited their holiest site, Lalesh temple, situated in a valley in Nineveh Province. She was told that only one other western woman had visited it.

Glanville returned to the Middle East again in the early 1930s to provide relief to the Christian Assyrians who had fled persecution from Iraq into Syria. Her work on their behalf won her many privileges. The French high commissioner in Syria gave her special permission to aid the Assyrian refugees in getting settled, the only “Britisher” allowed to do so. She attended meetings at the League of Nations four times pleading for assistance on their behalf.

Some eight decades later, the Middle East continues to be the scene of a major humanitarian disaster. Between Mount Sinjar and Kurdistan, families who have already witnessed atrocities beyond all human comprehension are in desperate need of food, shelter and medical supplies. With world newspapers now claiming the crisis is over, it is increasingly unlikely that governments will provide the help they need. It falls, then, to the community to act where governments will not – to send a clear message that the Australian people will not turn their backs on the suffering and the displaced.

Manning Clark House is calling for urgent funds to buy food and medical supplies to keep Yazidi families alive while they are rescued from Mount Sinjar and make their way to Kurdistan. Support is also needed for refugees in Erbil and other Kurdish centres. Genocide is looming for minority populations in the Middle East, particularly the Yazidis. Their call for help needs to be answered.

While Australia celebrates 100 years since Anzac, we would do well to remember that part of our nation’s legacy is to help victims of war.

If you would like to support the Yazidi Relief Fund, please visit the Manning Clark House’s website

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... o-so-again

[Anthea]

Yazidi Relief Fund

Run By:

Manning Clark House

Our "donate" button is now working! Please visit Manning Clark House to donate to the Yazidi Relief fund by PayPal or simply transfer funds to make a difference to refugees in Iraq. All donations tax deductible.

http://manningclark.org.au/

STOP PRESS - to donate to the Yazidi Relief Fund or else make a direct payment to the fund at BSB 032729, account number 297511.

Also please click link below to go direct to our Yazidi Relief Fund page on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/Yazidi.Relief.Fund

[Anthea]

Express

VIDEO: Hundreds of Yazidi men shown converting to Islam under threat of death by brutal IS

A VIDEO apparently showing Yazidi men converting to Islam under threat of death has been released by the Islamic State (IS).
By: Sarah Ann Harri

phpBB [video]

The militant group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), is believed to have already executed hundreds of members of the ancient religious sect in Iraq.

IS members have reportedly given Yazidi people a choice: convert to Islam or die.

Reports have also surfaced of Yazidi woman being buried alive and sold as slaves.

Many Yazidis are believed to still be trapped on Mount Sinjar, in the north-west of Iraq, after fleeing their villages.

The latest IS propaganda video seems to seek to show how the radical group has enlightened members of the religious group by converting them.

In the video, entitled 'Hundreds of Yazidis convert to Islam', an IS fighter tells the camera that the group wants those who remain on Mount Sinjar to come and join them.

He says: "We advise and plead with the Yazidis to come down from the mountains and to convert to Islam – firstly to rid themselves from the fires of hell in the end and secondly, if they remain on the mountain, they will die of hunger and thirst."

The militant goes on to say that reports of aid drops from Western countries, including Britain, are false.

He says: "And as for the aid from Western countries and crusader countries, it is a lie."

He adds that if Yazidis convert to Islam, they will be protected and live "happy lives".

A long line of men and boys is shown walking past a truck mounted with an anti-aircraft weapon before meeting IS fighters, shaking their hands and hugging them.

They are later shown sitting under the the radical group's flag, answering to a speaker.

They are told: "Right now you are infidels.

"After this you will become Muslims and you will have rights. Repeat after me."

The men are then shown taking part in Islamic prayers.

The Yazidi group, which is predominantly ethnically Kurdish, practises a faith which combines aspects of Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism (an Iranian faith believed to be one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions).

The eclectic belief system has adopted Christian rituals such as baptism, as well as Islamic traditions such as circumcision and the removal of shoes in their temples.

The video comes just days after the release of footage showing the murder of US journalist James Wright Foley by an IS killer.

Mr Foley was forced to read a statement criticising US forces and their strikes on IS, before he was beheaded by a masked militant - believed to be British.

US President Barack Obama has vowed to continue with airstrikes, despite threats from the group that another US hostage would die.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/501 ... amic-State

[Anthea]

There have been some disputes about who actually helped to rescue the Yazidis

I have just found the following video of PKK fighters and even though it is a few days old
I felt that it was important to share:

phpBB [video]

English saying:

"Every cloud has a silver lining"

Under the dark cloud of the Islam State terrorism - Kurds are uniting

Kurds are crossing the European imposed borders to help each other

Kurds are UNIFYING

[Anthea]

Rudaw

In a Syrian Camp, Yezidis Deal with Aftermath of Violence
By Kira Walker

DERIKE, Syria — A desolate and unforgiving patch of land in northeastern Syria is now home to 12,000 Yezidi refugees so desperate for safety they sought refuge in a country torn apart by its own civil war.

Aid workers are desperately trying to assist the refugees, who are sick and injured after escaping persecution by Islamic militants in Iraq. Many became malnourished on Shingal Mountain, where they were hiding from Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS) militants before being evacuated by Peshmerga and US forces.

Nowruz camp, on the outskirts of the city of Derike in Syrian Kurdistan, was built in November to provide shelter for 20 internally displaced Syrian families but swelled to 12,000 people after Yezidi refugees began pouring into the camp on August 10.

NGOs and local authorities have been scrambling to meet the basic needs of refugees in the camp by providing medicine, food, water and supplies.

Over 200 doctors and nurses have been called in to help treat the sick and injured. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is treating up to 400 patients a day, mostly for dehydration, fever and exhaustion.

The IRC reported that many patients are suffering from chronic diarrhea because they were forced to eat shrubs while stranded on the mountain. Many are still struggling to get properly hydrated.

Protected and controlled by the People’s Protection Units (YPG,) the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which helped rescue the Yezidi Kurds in Iraq, Syrian Kurdistan has seen relatively less conflict than the rest of Syria since the war began.

While they are protected from violence, however, there is little respite from the elements on the scorching plains of this de facto autonomous Kurdish region, known as Rojava. Daytime temperatures soar to nearly 50 degrees Celsius under the unforgiving August sun and the arid wind that howls through the camp coats everything in a thick layer of dust.

As a truck distributing supplies inched its way through the crowd, chaos ensued as people pushed their way to the front to try to secure the most basic items — pots, bowls, pillows — for their new makeshift homes.

Children scrambled and fought over the last remaining pairs of cheap plastic sandals. Forced to flee their homes as militants invaded Yezidi and Christian communities in northwestern Iraq, some walked the entire journey, over 60 kilometers, without shoes.

Ghazal Kassal is one of them. Along with her husband, their family of five left everything they owned behind when they heard that IS was rapidly advancing on the town of Shingal.

Her face, still burnt from the week she spent besieged on the mountain, was creased with fear and sorrow as she explained that three family members were still trapped in the town of Shingal, surrounded by IS on all sides and without a vehicle to help them escape. They have only been able to talk to them once and their fate remains unknown.

For many Yezidis, the YPG became heroes after they established and safeguarded an escape route into Syria from Mount Shingal, where up to 40,000 people fled in fear of their lives. Islamic extremists consider Yezidis, who are ethnically Kurdish but practice an ancient religion, apostates. IS has killed and kidnapped hundreds of Yezidis in recent weeks.

Shivan Khader Saleh’s oldest son has joined the YPG forces and he said others should as well.

“We (Yezidis) have lost everything to IS – our money, our houses, our cars, our girls. So why shouldn’t we join the YPG?”

Saleh, 52, and his 12 family members crowded together as he described their journey from Shingal to Nowruz. When IS surrounded the town on all four sides and Iraqi Arabs turned on them and joined the attacks on Yezidis, they fled to the mountains.

The mountainous terrain was so difficult to navigate that Saleh was forced to leave two of his daughters behind while the rest of the family continued on to Syria. When they arrived at Nowruz, they managed to find a car and returned immediately to pick up his daughters.

Saleh’s family knows they are fortunate to have all made it out alive. Others were not as lucky and lost family members while they were stranded on the mountain, or during the perilous journey on-foot afterwards. He said that many families — too weak to carry their own children — were forced to leave them behind.

Their physical wounds are healing, but the emotional scars the Yezidis now bear will not fade anytime soon. Deeply traumatized by what they have seen and experienced, the IRC said after getting people physically stable, their priority is to help them deal with the loss, fear and violence they have suffered.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/220820141