Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

Threatened Yazidi interpreters

After the hurried evacuation from Afghanistan left behind countless at-risk allies, former Yazidi interpreters who worked with the US military in Iraq are begging for special visas they say are needed to escape retribution in their home country

Seven years after the Islamic State rampage on the Yazidi ancestral homeland of Sinjar, the radical ideology that gave rise to the bloody massacre endures. Even after IS’ territorial defeat, the Yazidis, a mostly Kurdish-speaking minority group that practices an ancient monotheistic religion, say they remain highly vulnerable to extremists who view them as devil worshippers.

Jameel Chomer, who American troops nicknamed “Jimmy,” served as an interpreter and cultural adviser at the Al-Kasik military training base in northern Iraq between 2005 and 2010. More than a decade later, Chomer worries that his US affiliation makes him even more of a target to those wishing to harm Yazidis.

“To be a Yazidi, this is doubling the risk on your life,” Chomer told Al-Monitor by phone from his home in Iraq's Sinjar region. “Being a Yazidi who worked with the US Army, this is something that really increases the risk.”

In August 2014, ISIS descended on the mountainous Yazidi heartland of Sinjar and carried out what the United Nations has since deemed a genocide. Yazidi men were rounded up and executed, their bodies thrown into mass graves. Thousands more women and children were abducted, forced to convert to Islam and sold into sexual slavery.

As the militants advanced on the Yazidi stronghold, Chomer and his family escaped to the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Dohuk. Within days of the ISIS onslaught, Chomer applied for what's known as a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).

Created in 2006, the SIV program allocates a limited number of visas per year to Iraqis and Afghans who served as US military translators or interpreters and who want to resettle in the United States as legal permanent residents. In 2008, Congress established a second special visa program for endangered Iraqis who worked on behalf of the United States. A month after the ISIS assault on Sinjar, the Iraqi SIV program stopped accepting new applicants.

Iraqis who don’t qualify for SIVs can apply for visas through the Priority 2 (P-2) program for refugees, but their prospects of resettlement are slim. Despite having reserved 4,000 slots for Iraqis who aided the United States, the Donald Trump administration admitted just 161 of them in fiscal year 2020.

President Joe Biden inherited a massive backlog of applications that as of April 2021 had grown to include more than 106,000 Iraqis. Further complicating matters, the administration temporarily paused the Iraqi P-2 program earlier this year after an investigation revealed widespread fraud.

Hadi Pir, vice president of Yazidi advocacy group Yazda, has documented at least 124 former Yazidi interpreters and their family members whose SIV or P2 applications are pending. Many of them have waited in the pipeline for years despite the immediate danger to them in Iraq.

For Pir, a former Yazidi interpreter who immigrated to Nebraska in 2012, the issue hits close to home. He personally knows of several Yazidis killed at the hands of militias and extremists due to their US association. The lives of an untold number of others have been threatened, he said.

“It was always dangerous being a Yazidi, but it became way harder for some of us after becoming interpreters,” Pir explained. “You’re not only an ‘infidel,’ but you’re an ‘agent’ of the invaders.”

Security conditions in Iraq, coupled with coronavirus slowdowns, have exacerbated what is an already time-consuming, multi-agency screening process. Along with background checks, letters of recommendation and medical examinations, SIV recipients must submit to an in-person interview conducted at a US embassy or consulate.

But following a spate of Iran-backed militia attacks, the US Embassy in Baghdad ended visa processing in January 2020. With the consulate in Erbil offering only emergency consular services, Iraqis who are invited for a visa interview must now make an appointment at an embassy in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Ankara or Doha — travel that is financially or logistically out of the question for many applicants.

The bureaucratic delays have received attention in Congress. In a June letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a group of 12 Democratic lawmakers led by Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) called on the administration to come up with a plan to address the mounting visa backlog and safely resume consular operations in Baghdad.

No One Left Behind, a US nonprofit that advocates for SIV applicants, has advised the State Department on how to reduce bottlenecks in the application pipeline. It sounded that alarm as, much like in the Iraqi SIV program, thousands of Afghan interpreters were left waiting for approval before the Taliban’s lightning takeover.

“This should be a wake-up call for the Iraqi program,” said Mike Jabbar, an Iraqi SIV recipient and US Marine who works with No One Left Behind. “Because the US will eventually pull out of Iraq, and if we don’t start taking these guys out of the country, we’re going to have the same problem.”

Today, many Yazidis displaced by the 2014 massacre are reluctant to go back to Sinjar, where basic services are lagging and explosives still litter the ground. Much of the town’s original population remains in tented camps scattered across northern Iraq.

Chomer was afraid to set foot in his own house when he returned in April 2017. During his frantic escape three years earlier, the former interpreter had left behind potentially incriminating paperwork and photos with US troops.

“We were very afraid to go back to the house because there was so much evidence inside,” he said. “They destroyed everything.”

But Chomer says he is among the fortunate ones. His ransacked house, unlike many other Yazidi homes, was not rigged with improvised explosives.

Faced with the specter of renewed attacks, Chomer has spent the past seven years trying to navigate a nightmare of red tape so that he and his family can join the several thousand other Yazidis who call the United States home. His interview at the Baghdad embassy was canceled and securing an appointment in another consular office has proven challenging.

The uncertainty has left Chomer, his wife and three children in a sort of limbo state, unable to plan for a future in Iraq or the United States.

“You don’t know your fate or destination,” Chomer said of his situation. “You are just trying to live month by month, week by week, hoping that something will come at the end of the tunnel.”

“Little by little, we are losing hope,” he said.

https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/20 ... -wake-call

[Anthea]

Yazidi genocide: A slow reckoning

The Islamic State committed genocide against Iraq's Yazidis. Thousands remain unaccounted for and thousands more lie in mass graves. The international community should demand accountability

In August 2014, the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) swept across Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq, carrying out a series of atrocities against the region's traditionally heterogeneous population.

One community that suffered particularly under ISIS rule is the Yazidis, a predominantly Kurdish religious minority considered "devil worshippers" and heretics by radical extremists. It is estimated that ISIS killed around 10,000 Yazidis and displaced hundreds of thousands more, while 6,000 Yazidi women were captured and sold into sexual slavery. Seven years after the start of the atrocities and four years after the defeat of ISIS in Nineveh's capital Mosul, the pursuit of safety and justice remains elusive.

The plight of the Yazidis has been in the spotlight with growing international recognition that ISIS's crimes against them amount to genocide - defined as acts of killing and other atrocities committed "with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group".

"ISIS killed around 10,000 Yazidis and displaced hundreds of thousands more, while 6,000 Yazidi women were captured and sold into sexual slavery"

Following an initial analysis by the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide in late 2015, the European Parliament passed a resolution to this effect in February 2016, and other western governments, including the United States, followed suit.

Furthermore, at the request of the Iraqi government, the UN Security Council established the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS (UNITAD) for purposes of collecting, preserving, and storing evidence of international crimes. In May 2021, the head of UNITAD confirmed that there was "clear and convincing evidence that genocide was committed by [ISIS] against the Yazidi as a religious group".

In part, this recognition has been translated into action: the Iraqi parliament adopted the Yazidi Survivors Law in March this year, which officially recognises the Yazidi genocide and makes provisions regarding compensation for victims, as well as their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

While the law was hailed as an important first step towards justice, Nicolette Waldman, a researcher with Amnesty International's Crisis Response Programme, has criticised the failure of legislators to consider the "needs of children born as a result of sexual violence by ISIS members, or the needs of their mothers".

Furthermore, Iraq's parliament has yet to render the law fully operational by enacting the requisite implementing regulations.

On the legal accountability side, there are ongoing criminal prosecutions against IS members for crimes committed against Yazidis in Germany, and one verdict was handed down by the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf in June.

— FreeYezidiFoundation (@Free_Yezidi) May 24, 2021

But these are drops in the ocean as other avenues for justice remain largely closed: there is no international tribunal to prosecute those allegedly involved in acts of genocide and crimes against humanity, like there was for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

UNITAD was established to support domestic accountability efforts, primarily in Iraq. Because Iraq lacks the legal framework to prosecute international crimes, however, Human Rights Watch has reported that former ISIS members are often tried under counterterrorism laws for membership in a terrorist organisation, and neither survivors nor their families can participate meaningfully in the process.

An initiative by the autonomous Kurdish regional government to set up a special tribunal for the prosecution of ISIS crimes was declared unconstitutional by Iraq's Federal Supreme Court two months ago.

More immediate concerns remain unaddressed as well: while the remains of 104 Yazidi victims were exhumed from mass graves and laid to rest in their hometown of Kocho this February, thousands of others are still buried in one of the more than 200 mass graves that ISIS left behind across Iraq.

A further 2,868 Yazidis are unaccounted for but may still be alive, and urgent action is needed to locate them.

"These efforts are drops in the ocean as other avenues for justice remain largely closed: there is no international tribunal to prosecute those allegedly involved in acts of genocide and crimes against humanity"

Finally, the security situation has not improved enough for many Yazidis to return to their ancestral homeland by the Sinjar mountains. A 2019 study by Yale University's Persecution Prevention Project warned that despite ISIS's military defeat, continuing denial of fundamental rights and "patterns of persecution" in Iraq place the group at risk of further atrocities.

Going forward, establishing the fate of the missing persons and countering risk factors for recurring violence in Sinjar must be immediate priorities. Furthermore, national authorities should heed the call of civil society organisations to operationalise the Survivors Law while bearing in mind a victim-centred approach.

In the medium term, Iraq should take steps towards the adoption of a legal framework that allows for the domestic prosecution of international crimes, in full compliance with international human rights standards.

As victim groups continue to advocate for international trials, governments that campaign in the name of "global justice" should demonstrate initiative by taking up their cause before the Security Council and other organs.

Anna-Christina Schmidl is a human rights researcher and writer currently based in Germany.

https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/y ... -reckoning

[Anthea]

The Yazidi Genocide and Ongoing Slaughter

The Office for Yazidi Affairs demands recognition of the ISIS genocide by the German parliament

The most recent genocide in the history of the Yazidis began on August 3, 2014. On that day, the terrorist militia ISIS invaded Shengal to wipe out the Yazidi community. What followed was mass murder of men, abduction and enslavement of women and girls, forced recruitment of boys as child soldiers, the flight of countless people.

At least 10,000 members of this ancient religion fell victim to ISIS massacres, according to estimates. More than 400,000 people were displaced from their homes. More than 7,000 women and children were abducted, and about 3,000 women and children are still missing today.

The governments of some countries, most recently Belgium and the Netherlands, the United Nations (UN) and the European Parliament have already recognized the acts of ISIS as genocide. A petition by the Office for Yazidi Affairs (Stelle für Jesidische Angelegenheiten e.V.) now demands that the German parliament also follow suit and recognize the genocide as such.

The petition for recognition can be accessed on the website http://www.genozid2014.de, the deadline for signatures is September 23

The recognition of a genocide as a historical fact is an important step for its reappraisal, the punishment and sanctioning of perpetrators and the prevention of further crimes. In Germany, the genocide of the Yazidis has already been punished according to the principle of international law, and three ISIS terrorists have been convicted of crimes against humanity by German courts. This is an important step in the fight against impunity and a serious warning signal for perpetrators - but not enough.

Yazidi minority remains at risk

Even seven years after the last firman, as Yazidis call the genocide, their situation remains precarious. ISIS may have been defeated militarily, but the security situation in Shengal remains fragile.

The region is a permanent focus of the Turkish state; just a few weeks ago, the NATO partner bombed a hospital in Shengal. In addition to four members of the Yazidi Resistance Units (YBŞ), which formed in self-defense in response to the genocide, four health workers at the clinic were killed. A day earlier, YBŞ commander Seîd Hesen and his nephew were killed in a Turkish drone strike in Shengal.

However, the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is indifferent; for them, the Yazidi minority is not a priority. Reconstruction in Shengal has also barely begun. Only a few displaced Yazidis have returned to their settlement areas, after living in the large refugee camps around the city of Duhok.

The humanitarian situation there is disastrous

[Anthea]

Elderly Yazidi captured on home arrival

Mercenaries of the so-called Hamza Brigade stationed at the village of Kafr Zeit in the Jinderse District captured Yazidi man Hesen Kalo, 70, upon his arrival to his village some 20 days ago. Putting a 5000 USD ransom for his release and residing in his own village.

Kalo was living in the Shahba Canton before being caught in the calls made by the Kurdish National Council, the ENKS, calling on Afrin IDPs to return home though crimes are very common in the Afrin under Turkish and mercenary occupation.

[Anthea]

Find the 3,000 missing women and children

Campaigners demand action from world leaders to find 3,000 missing Yazidi women and children

More than 80 organisations and individuals have launched a campaign calling for world leaders to take “decisive action” to find nearly 3,000 missing Yazidi women and children.

Around 3,000 that were captured by ISIS and sold into sexual slavery as they carried out a genocide in the Shengal region of northern Iraq have never been found.

A joint letter to the United Nations General Assembly which opened for its 76th session on Tuesday calls for the international community to take measures to secure their safe return.

“We have a moral imperative to offer whatever leadership and support we can to end this horrific situation,” the signatories said.

The NGOs and individuals, including Baroness Helena Kennedy and British parliamentarians, said that it is “a travesty that the Yazidi women and children remain missing and their fate unknown” seven years after they were kidnapped.

“Despite findings of genocide and repeated pronouncements expressing concern for Yazidis, the international community has failed to organise any effort to locate these kidnapped individuals,” the letter continued.

As mass graves continue to be discovered, campaigners called on delegates at the UN to work together with governments and other bodies to locate those still alive and provide closure to the families of those murdered, allowing for their loved ones to have a dignified burial.

“Now is the time to put words into action. While Yazidis face many challenges, organising a search for abducted women and children is tangible, workable, achievable and long overdue.

“We call upon you to demonstrate the moral leadership and courage necessary to push global action in the face of genocide,” the letter concluded.

The Yazidi people were targeted in August 2013 as ISIS swept to power across large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

Many fled to Mount Sinjar and were held under siege, short of food, water and basic supplies while thousands were slaughtered or sold into sexual slavery.

Turkey has been accused of hindering efforts for the return of the Yazidi people to their homeland, conducting frequent air raids on the region.

Last month it bombed a busy marketplace in Shengal, killing a Yazidi official who was heading to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadimi.

Days later it targeted a hospital killing eight people, including four health workers.

[Anthea]

Book on Yazidi genocide in German

A book about the Yazidi genocide has been translated into German for use in German institutions studying the Islamic State (ISIS) crimes against the minority community in northern Iraq

The Yazidi Genocide is a seven-volume tome originally published in Arabic and written by Kurdish scholar Dawood Khatari. The German edition condenses the book into one volume, titled Ferman 74, referring to the dozens of genocides Yazidis have suffered.

“The printing of this book has been funded by the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Germany in cooperation with the University of Potsdam. This book won’t be studied only at universities, but it will be studied as historical record in schools,” said Stefan Gatzhammer, from Germany’s University of Potsdam.

Ferman 74 draws on more than 200 statements and interviews of survivors to document the crimes of ISIS.

The University of Duhok organized a workshop about the book on Monday.

ISIS took over the Shingal district of northern Iraq in August 2014, committing genocide against the Yazidi minority. The militants systematically killed men and older women, and enslaved younger women and children. In the first days of the genocide, 1,293 Yazidis were killed and 6,417 were abducted.

Link to Article - Video:

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/21092021

[Anthea]

Missing Yazidis Women And Children

Must Be Rescued

On September 14, 2021, and as the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly was opening, close to a hundred organizations and experts, in a joint letter, called upon several world leaders to ensure the missing Yazidi women and children are located and reunited with their families. It has been more than seven years and their fate remains unknown

SYRIA-CONFLICT-YAZIDI

In August 2014, Daesh (also known as ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State) unleashed a genocidal campaign against Yazidis, Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq. Among the atrocities, they abducted and enslaved thousands of women and children, including for sex trafficking and sex slavery. Daesh further committed murder, enslavement, deportation and forcible transfer of population, imprisonment, torture, exploitation, abuse, forced marriage and much more. The atrocities have been recognized by a few governments and several parliaments as crimes against humanity, war crimes and even genocide, the crime of crimes.

Seven years after Daesh abducted them from Sinjar, Iraq, about 3,000 Yazidi women and children are still missing. Despite this significant lapse of time, no real effort has been made to locate them, and if alive, ensure that they are rescued and reunited with their families.

The recent joint letter calls upon world leaders to work with partners to conduct an official search to identify the whereabouts of the missing women and children, including in the Al-Hol camp in Syria where many are believed to be held; work with local partners to free all Yazidi women and children who are alive and ensure that the remains of those killed are returned to their families and given a dignified and honorable burial. Seven years after the atrocities, these actions are long overdue but urgently needed.

Knox Thames, former U.S. Special Advisor for Religious Minorities at the State Department, and co-author of the letter said: “Seven years have passed, but the international community still has not organized a search for the 3,000 missing Yazidi women and children. Without action, words of support for the kidnapped Yazidis ring hollow.

It's time the international community got serious about locating the missing Yazidi women and children kidnapped by Daesh.” Pari Ibrahim, Founder and Executive Director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, and co-author of the letter, said: “Nothing is more agonizing and frustrating to the Yezidi community than waiting and wondering about the missing. We are realistic, and we know that not every missing Yezidi is still alive.

For those who are still suffering slavery and abuse every day, the international community must make a serious, coordinated rescue effort. We are calling for an ‘Amber Alert’ for our missing Yezidis.” Abid Shamdeen, Executive Director of Nadia's Initiative, co-author of the letter, commented: “The Yazidi community has been calling for the search and rescue of nearly 3,000 women and children who are still missing and in captivity.

Their calls have been met with silence from the governments of Baghdad and Erbil and the international community for over seven years. The longer we wait to create a joint task force to search for those missing, the more we signal to these Yazidi women and children that their wellbeing does not matter.”

Seven years after the abductions and enforced disappearances, it is time to act and bring back the women and children. We cannot ensure justice for the Yazidis without finding the missing women and children. If alive, they continue to be subjected to horrific atrocities that need to be put to an end.

The world may have moved on from the Daesh atrocities but these women and children continue to live them every day. This Daesh genocide will continue until the women and children are located and rescued. If they were killed, their families deserve to know what happened to them. They will not be able to move on with their lives if they continue waiting for their return that is not coming.

Locating and rescuing the missing Yazidi women and children is not only a crucial step in the response to the Daesh atrocities; it is a humane response.

[Anthea]

Yazidis on brink of death

A group of Yazidis who fled Iraq have been stuck on the Poland-Belarus border for a week with nothing to eat, according to their families. They are among hundreds of migrants caught up in a dispute between European nations and Belarus

“Thirty-two Yazidi migrants are stranded on the border between #Belarus and #Poland for 7 days now. These are Yazidi families from Sinjar [Shingal]. This is a life threatening situation,” Murad Ismael, president and co-founder of Sinjar Academy, tweeted on Tuesday, calling on Poland to allow them entry on humanitarian grounds.

A relative of the group said they don’t have food and water and are in a desperate state.

“They have been in the forest for seven days and seven nights. They haven’t eaten anything. There’s no food for them and they’re on the brink of death. Five or six of them are in dire condition. They don’t know when they will die,” Fadel Hassan told Rudaw English by phone from Germany.

Eleven of his relatives are stranded on the border.

“Sometimes they eat leaves, but they can’t eat a lot because it’s hard on the stomach,” he said. For water, they drink from a pond.

Thousands of migrants, mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan, and African nations, have tried to gain entry to European Union nations from Belarus this summer. The EU has accused Minsk of pushing migrants to their borders in protest of sanctions imposed in response to a crackdown on dissent.

Poland has declared a state of emergency on their border and said it has found evidence of links to extremism on the phones of some migrants.

The European Court of Human Rights on August 25 ruled Poland and Latvia must provide the migrants with food, water, clothing, medical care, and temporary shelter if possible, but does not require them to let the migrants cross into their territory. Six people, including at least one Iraqi, have died on Poland’s border since August.

Hassan said his relatives want to be allowed to enter Poland in order travel to Germany, or stay in Belarus, “as long as they don’t die.”

He fled Shingal to Germany after Islamic State (ISIS) militants took over the Yazidi heartland in northern Iraq in August 2014, committing genocide against the minority community. ISIS militants systematically killed men and older women, and enslaved younger women and children. In the first days of the genocide, 1,293 people were killed and 6,417 people were abducted. Today, 2,760 people are still missing, according to statistics from the NGO Joint Help for Kurdistan.

Hundreds of thousands fled their homes, seeking shelter on Mount Sinjar, then later in camps in the Kurdistan Region or abroad. Seven years later, most are still living in the camps, unable to go home because of insecurity and lack of reconstruction. Life in the camps is hard, exposed to the elements and the risk of fire, and suicide rates are high.

“Iraq has gotten really bad, especially for Yazidis. Yazidis can’t live in Iraq to be honest,” said Hassan, saying Shingal is “not safe” to return to.

Baghdad and Erbil reached an agreement on Shingal a year ago, laying out a roadmap to secure the town by expelling the various armed groups with allegiances to Iranian-backed militias and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and creating a force that recruits from local populations. The deal has yet to be fully implemented.

Murad Ismael called on the international community to help Yazidis in their homeland. “Continued failure will result in more risky migration like this one,” he tweeted.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/world/28092021

[Anthea]

The Struggle Continues:

The Yazidi In Post-ISIS Iraq

The suffering of the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority continues in Iraq, as survivors of the Islamic State persecution seek recognition, reparations and closure

The Yazidis, who follow their own ancient pre Iranian religion and inhabit the northwestern Sinjar region of Iraq, were the victims of unimaginable brutality at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS). The campaign against them began in August 2014 and resulted in the massacre of 5,000 men, whilst at least 7,000 women and girls were sold into sexual slavery.

However, the true scale of the horror may never be known. Last spring, a “landmark” investigation by the United Nations (UN) evaluated the atrocities committed against the Yazidi people and decided that they constituted “clear and convincing evidence” of genocide. The ISIS sought to mercilessly wipe the minority from existence.

On 9 July, 2017, when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi declared victory over ISIS in Mosul, Yazidis could finally dream their nightmare was over and that justice would be served. However, their pleas fell on deaf ears, as Iraqi officials failed to acknowledge the evils committed against them. In the courtrooms, ISIS militants who admitted to being involved in the capture and enslavement of Yazidi women were not charged for their crimes, but were said to only have breached anti-terrorism laws.

Human rights activists like Yazidi Nobel Prize laureate Nadia Murad, who escaped the ISIS and discussed the abuse she suffered at the 2015 UN Security Council, made it their mission to ensure these perversions of justice would not be swept under the carpet. As a result, the story of the Yazidis continued struggle gained momentum and caught the attention of media outlets and NGO’s across the globe.

Four years later, hope has emerged once more for the Yazidis. On 1 March, Iraq’s parliament passed the Yazidi Survivors Law, which pledges reparations in the form of a monthly salary and housing to women and girls who were subject to sexual violence. Child survivors who were abducted before the age of 18 would also receive reparations. UN human rights expert Cecilia Jimenez-Damary commended the decision and labelled it “a major step towards promoting justice for crimes committed by ISIS.”

Equally, on the seven year anniversary of the genocide last month, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the law, urging its “swift and full implementation.” He also emphasized that “recognizing the pain and courage of the Yazidis, recovery and rehabilitation remain a priority.”

However, many experts have their reservations about the legislation. Whilst enthusiastic that action was being taken by Iraqi officials, Ms Jimenez-Damary expressed deep concern about the omission of children born out of rape from the law. Others are disconcerted by the lack of attention given to the 3,000 missing women, whose families remain in a torturous limbo, unaware of whether their mothers, sisters or daughters are dead or alive.

As encapsulated by Yesim Arikut Treece of the Free Yazidi Foundation, it is these uncertainties which continue to plague the Yazidis, preventing them from having closure and prolonging their suffering. “[T]hey cannot start the grieving process, it is like a wound that festers.” But the greatest uncertainty of all is whether the Iraqi government will deliver on the beguiling promise of reparations. As such, it is the responsibility of the international community to ensure that these measures are implemented and more action is taken to help the Yazidis by engaging in consistent dialogue with the Iraqi government.

Misunderstood and marginalized throughout history, persecution is not a novel phenomenon for the Yazidi community. They have been targeted as an ethnic and religious minority in Iraq since the time of the Ottomans in 1640. Therefore, it is crucial that a shared truth about these atrocities is established to enable recovery for the survivors, which would, in turn, lay the foundations for a more peaceful Iraq and prevent history from repeating itself.

https://theowp.org/the-struggle-continu ... t-is-iraq/

[Anthea]

People of Shengal take to streets

The Yazidi town of Shengal (Sinjar) in Southern Kurdistan has been witnessing military activity by the armed forces of the KDP and the Iraqi army since early this morning. Residents took to the streets in several locations across the town in the face of military activity and reports are coming through of an extraordinary situation in Shengal

Reports from the ground say that a large number of KDP and Iraqi troops have been deployed on the roads leading to the Yazidi settlement. The KDP is said to be seeking to implement the Shengal Agreement on the pretext of the upcoming elections.

KDP forces were deployed at checkpoints between Shengal and the regions of Rabia and Zakho as well as other regions in Kurdistan Region.

People of Shengal have gathered at all roads and checkpoints and built barricades against the military forces of the KDP to prevent an imminent action. Masses have also gathered outside the centers of the public security forces (Asayish) in Guhbel and Borik. The people, the majority of them being women, have started sit-in protests on the main streets to prevent the movement of the military forces.

According to reports, the KDP is preparing its military forces to enter Shengal, while Iraqi forces have been stationed in several locations in the town. Residents of the Yazidi settlement have gathered on the main streets, at checkpoints and local councils, voicing their reaction against the KDP and the Iraqi army.

Confused - me too

Shengal (Sinjar) is in Southern Kurdistan, which means it comes under the government / army of South Kurdistan

Iraqi forces have no legal or moral rights to any part of South Kurdistan

There are several armed groups operating within Yazidi land, others such as the the vile Turks are attacking from outside Yazidi lands, and others trying to influence the gentle Yazidis

The Yazidis are a peaceful people who need protecting from ALL the various groups armed groups

As yet nobody is protecting the Yazidis and most people feel far to insecure to return home

More than 7 years after the ISIS genocide, there has been almost no effort from the international community to help rebuild Yazidi lands and businesses, not even from those countries who had a part in destroying the lands and properties as part of the fight against ISIS

Personally, I would like all the armed groups removed from Yazidi lands and a United Nations Peacekeeping Force to protect the lands and all the people

[Anthea]

Slightly different view on article above

Along campaign trail

Members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) reportedly including parliamentary candidates on their campaign trail encountered physical roadblocks that prevented them from entering the Shingal district in the Nineveh province, days out from this month’s parliamentary elections

Scores of people reportedly blocked roadways at the district’s main entrance from the Kurdistan Region. Claims from involved parties remain unconfirmed.

Ashti Kochar, head of the KDP’s office in Shingal, in a press conference blamed the blockage on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) opposition. He said that “when elections are being held, the candidates have the right to go to their areas and campaign.”

Qasim Shasho, commander of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga forces in Shingal, told Rudaw Saturday that the Shingal Resistance Forces (YBS) and PKK “prevented the KDP delegation” from entering the district.

PKK-aligned parties, meanwhile, say that they were unaware of the KDP’s visit.

Hussein Haji, head of the PKK-aligned Autonomous Administration in Shingal, told Rudaw Saturday that it was not made aware of the KDP’s visit.

“We should have also been made aware of their visit, and they should have coordinated with us, as well,” he said.

PKK-affiliated ANF news said that the KDP engaged in "military activity" to enter Shingal, and that “the people of Shingal went out and closed the main road linking the Kurdistan Region with Shingal.”

Khudeda Chuki, mayor of the town of Sinuni in the Shingal district, said in a statement to Rudaw that “those who prevented [KDP entry] were civilians.”

Iraqi Prime Minister and commander-in-chief of armed forces Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a meeting with the electoral commission and the High Security Committee on Saturday that “it is strictly forbidden to block roads in any electoral district, with the intention of influencing voters in favor of any political party.”

Vian Dakhil, a KDP candidate in Shingal said campaign prevention could signify that “there’s a plan on election day to not let people to vote by right and choice.” She said that, should this be the case, the KDP will file a complaint citing that “it is against the law according to the Election Commission to prevent anyone from holding their election.”

Tensions between the Kurdistan Region’s ruling KDP and the PKK have been on the rise for nearly a year, both sides trying to assert territorial control in areas that have seen regular clashes between the PKK and Turkish army. The KDP and its leaders in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have repeatedly called on the PKK to leave the Kurdistan Region.

Since its departure four years ago from disputed areas it claims were “occupied” by federal forces, the KDP has been almost totally absent from those areas, making it a challenge to connect with voters as it tries to reassert itself in areas fraught with ethnic tensions and sparring forces - some who see the KDP as a foe.

A number of armed forces remain in Shingal with various allegiances, including the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, also called Hashd al-Shaabi) and groups affiliated with the PKK. Last year, the Iraqi federal government and the KRG reached an agreement on the disputed Shingal region, also called Sinjar, stipulating that all armed forces should leave the city and be replaced by the federal police. The agreement has yet to be implemented, largely because armed groups refuse to leave.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/021020214

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Massacred by Islamic State

Yazidis now face Turkish airstrikes

Seven years after genocide at the hands of Islamic State (ISIS), approximately 200,000 Yazidis remain trapped in Iraqi Kurdistan’s sprawling refugee camps

The terror group has long been vanquished from the Sinjar Mountains, the Yazidis’ ancestral homeland, but few feel safe returning. Drones and jets have returned to the skies above Sinjar, bombing not IS but the Yazidi militia that defeated it.

Turkey considers the militia to be a front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a US and EU-designated terrorist group, and has vowed to remove it from Sinjar province.

A New Statesman analysis of Turkey’s airstrikes against the Yazidi militants has found that 60 per cent resulted in reported civilian casualties, including two-thirds of strikes since 2020.

Three in five Turkish airstrikes in Sinjar have reportedly harmed civilians

Building upon a database of airstrikes compiled by researchers Amy Austin Holmes, Diween Hawezy and Brett Cohen, the New Statesman verified and geolocated 27 individual airstrikes. The data shows that Turkey has intensified its bombardment in recent years. Almost half of the attacks have occurred since August 2020.

Holmes is calling for an independent investigation of the strikes. “This hasn’t happened yet, in part because the world is focused on Afghanistan,” she told the New Statesman.

“But I also fear it is because the underlying causes of the genocide against the Yazidis are still there: they are seen as unworthy of protection.”

After Sinjar was abandoned to ISIS by the Kurdistan Regional Government in 2014, the PKK launched a major rescue operation. The group later facilitated the formation of two Yazidi self-defence militias, the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) and the Êzîdxan Women’s Units (YJÊ).

In 2015, the three groups successfully recaptured the region, establishing a local administration and police force autonomous from both the Kurdish and federal governments, the Sinjar Democratic Autonomous Assembly (MXSD).

The Yazidi militias have since partly integrated into Iraq’s centrally funded Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF). Despite formally withdrawing from Sinjar in 2018, the PKK continues to maintain a presence in the region. Turkey has threatened to invade Sinjar if the Iraqi government does not remove the PKK and MXSD. “We may come there overnight, all of a sudden,” President Erdogan said in January.

Last October, Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government reached an agreement to expel the groups and re-establish federal control over Sinjar. Backed by the UN, the Sinjar Agreement was supposed to stabilise the province and enable reconstruction. However, local Yazidis were not consulted on the plan and have resisted its implementation. Ten months later, little has changed.

“There was no meaningful consultation with the Yazidi community about the Sinjar Agreement, and there are a number of major gaps,” Pari Ibrahim, executive director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, told the New Statesman. “Still, most Yazidis also saw some parts of the agreement that could be helpful if implemented. But the starting point should not be the expulsion of those Yezidis who are in Sinjar now.”

Iraq’s silence has infuriated Yazidis

On 16 August, as Iraqi prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi travelled to Sinjar for the first such visit since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, a car exploded in the city’s busy market district. Seîd Hesen, a Yazidi leader and PMF commander, had reportedly been travelling with his nephew for a meeting with Al-Kadhimi at the time his car was hit by a Turkish airstrike. The attack killed both men and injured three civilians.

“We have no expectations of the Iraqi government,” the YJÊ’s Viyan Hebabî said at the funeral that evening. “If Iraq were really a state, the fascist Turkish invading state would not have been able to cross its borders and attack our people.”

The following day, Turkish bombs levelled a hospital in the nearby village of Sekina, reportedly killing four healthcare workers and four YBS fighters. Turkey denies that the building was a hospital.

It was not until the day after the second attack that Al-Kadhimi, along with the US State Department, condemned the strikes, though neither named Turkey as the culprit. That evening, Al-Kadhimi’s defence minister Juma Inad arrived in Ankara for an arms exhibition. When asked about the attacks in a subsequent press conference, Inad insisted that the strikes had not breached Iraqi sovereignty. When pressed further, the minister shouted, “Don’t provoke me!” before slamming the table and walking off stage.

Since 2015, Turkish airstrikes in Iraq are reported to have killed between 65 and 125 civilians while wounding between between 100 and 144, according to data from Airwars, a London-based non-profit that tracks civilian harm from airstrikes.

Iraq, which depends on Turkey for the vast majority of its water, has been reluctant to respond to the attacks.

“It is a complicated political and economic issue,” said Ibrahim. “But in terms of global diplomacy and sovereignty, it is hard to understand how a country could permit its citizens to be killed by a foreign air force without any response.

“The individuals killed were not foreign fighters or PKK members – they were Yazidis, Iraqi citizens and survivors of the Yazidi genocide.”

Last summer, a volley of airstrikes against YBS positions lit the entire western face of Mount Sinjar on fire, with the damage visible from space.

Last summer, Turkish jets set fire to Mount Sinjar

“​​Some have cancelled their plans to return to Sinjar because of this issue. Some have left Sinjar and gone back to the IDP camps for safety,” said Ibrahim.

“We are very clear – we don’t defend the PKK,” Murad Ismail, founder of Sinjar Academy, told the New Statesman. “We think Kurds have a legitimate cause in Turkey, but it’s not our conflict. But the Iraqi government hasn’t spent any money on Sinjar, so the simplest problems are not solved. You wouldn’t believe it, but they haven’t been successful in exhuming 80 mass graves.

“The Sinjar Agreement could have been an opportunity to bring everybody under the state. To create a structure for the militias within the Iraqi security forces, and ask all these young people to come and join.

“If Iraq was a united country, then it would be more powerful to resist both Turkish and Iranian influence. They influence what they can influence, and currently there is nothing repelling them.”

The Turkish Ministry of National Defence and Iraqi prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

https://www.newstatesman.com/internatio ... airstrikes

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Yazidis divided but determined

Approaching the dusty town of Sinouni in the Sinjar region now infamously known as the ancestral homeland of Iraq’s Yazidi minority where the Islamic State (ISIS) carried out a brutal genocide, the number of posters depicting parliamentary candidates for Sunday’s election is surpassed only by a proliferation of colourful bunting

At one checkpoint, the bunting is yellow, each small flag blowing in the wind decorated with the emblem of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP), the ruling party of Iraqi Kurdistan which, until four years ago, controlled the Sinjar district.

The next checkpoint is decorated with red bunting bearing the emblem of the Yazidi Freedom and Democracy Party, Pade.

Why the Iraq elections will not prevent the next political crisis

However festive it may appear, Sinouni’s flurry of flags reflects fierce rivalries running through a reinvigorated Yazidi political scene, where 12 candidates are competing for four seats.

“For the Yazidis, this election is very different from previous votes," explained one Sinjar resident, who like many locals requested to speak anonymously due to current tensions.

"Before there were just candidates from three main parties - the KDP, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress, and only the KDP was really strong and powerful. This time, there are many independent candidates to choose from.”

There is considerable appetite for voting here, more so than in other Iraqi governorates, where many say these elections will merely replace one set of corrupt politicians with another. Although the neglected Yazidis also expect little will change, the choice of candidates has inspired more interest in politics.

This new wave of political interest is encouraging, according to Shamo Mourad Hussein a candidate standing for the Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress, the oldest Yazidi political party, established after the overthrow of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“We’re very happy to see new candidates," he told Middle East Eye.

"We wanted the Yazidi youth to have their own ambitions and stand as independent candidates. But the problem is, although they are standing as independents, they actually have support from parties and are under the political agenda of others, so they’re not really independent.”

Kurdish media has reported that two of the Yazidi candidates are backed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), members of which are still reportedly hiding out in Mount Sinjar and who continue to be sporadically targeted by Turkish airstrikes, most recently in August this year.

A Sinjar source also said it was locally believed the PKK might try to gain some political foothold by backing an electoral candidate.

A medic who will be heading to the polls for the first time said he feared the proliferation of candidates, parties, and allegiances would do the Yazidis no favours in the long run.

“We are a small minority, so we need to be united, but now everyone is divided between ideas and parties,” he said. “This has made us very weak, as we have no one leader who can unite us. If we continue like this, we will become weaker and weaker until we disappear.”

New rivalries, old grievances

One of the four Yazidi seats is allocated to a woman, sparking a fierce contest between the two women candidates: the KDP’s Vian Dakhil, a long-standing Yazidi MP, and Marwa Mourad al-Sheikh Kalo, daughter of an advisor to late former Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) Forces commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, assassinated by a US airstrike in January 2020.

“This is a very real and serious competition, and I feel it,” 33-year-old Kalo told MEE with a shy laugh. “The other candidate has been in parliament for eight years, but when anyone is nominated, of course, they have support and will get some votes, and I’m happy to be involved.”

Even Yazidis not planning to vote spoke warmly of Mosul-born Kalo, noting her French higher education, although few realised her PhD linguistics thesis discussed the impact of immigration on minority languages - a pertinent topic for Iraq’s Yazidis, many of whom sought asylum abroad after ISIS.

Understood to have Hashd al-Shaabi backing, likely to bring her votes as the force holds considerable respect in Sinjar, Kalo’s posters across Sinjar far outnumber the images of her rival Dakhil.

The fresh Yazidi candidates competing in this election - the second parliamentary vote since Baghdad regained control of Sinjar from Kurdish rule following the ill-fated 2017 Kurdish Independence referendum - has threatened the dominance of the KDP, which has held the lion’s share of Yazidi minority seats in parliament since 2003, when the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan absorbed Sinjar into its territory.

Many Yazidis who have returned to the Sinjar region - an estimated 30 percent of the 500,000 to 700,000 who remain in Iraq - seem determined to ensure that the Kurdish loss of Sinjar is not just a territorial one, but also a political one.

“Definitely not a Kurd!” fumed Saad, 61, as he bought vegetables in a Sinouni shop. “Not one single Yazidi seat will go to a representative of a Kurdish Party, and anyone who says otherwise is a member of a Kurdish party.”

The antagonism towards Kurdish parties is sensitive and complex. No-one here has forgotten it was Iraqi Kurdistan’s peshmerga forces that fled Sinjar in 2014, leaving Yazidis at the mercy of IS’ brutal genocide. There are also long-standing grievances that Iraqi Kurdistan failed to invest in Sinjar during the 11 years it held the territory, and dissatisfaction over the forced eviction from Iraqi Kurdistan of displaced families believed to have affiliations with the Hashd al-Shaabi, which incorporated several Yazidi units into their ranks.

Iraq elections: Accusations fly as fractured Tishreen movement seeks votes

Even identifying as ethnic Yazidis rather than Kurds allegedly brings the risk of persecution in patriotic Kurdistan, according to Hussein. Pointing out that Yazidism is one of the world’s oldest religions, he told MEE: “We believe our ethnicity is Yazidi, not Kurdish. And our experience is that whenever the KDP has the opportunity, they carry out violations against the Yazidi people.”

Defaced posters reflect local anti-KDP sentiment and, at the main roundabout in Sinjar town, someone has carefully removed the electoral number from several of the party’s posters.

It is not that Yazidis expect much better from Baghdad, which has also largely sidelined the remote region, only hastily resurfacing on Sinjar town’s war-scarred roads two days before the vote. But there are hopes that independent candidates may offer more effective representation for the minority and its needs in parliament.

Campaign stand-off

Some prospective voters anticipate that at least one or two seats will still be secured by the KDP, mostly because of its influence over the estimated 70 percent of the Yazidi population still living as internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Yazidi candidates not representing Kurdish parties have largely been unable to campaign in the camps where most of their electorate lives. Kalo is the only such candidate who has managed to access the camps but, she told MEE, this was conducted like a secret mission rather than campaign visit, during which she was forbidden from putting up posters, despite KDP campaign posters proliferating across the camps.
'

I want to support the community but I also need to keep them safe'

- Marwa Kalo, Yazidi parliamentary candidate

She also encountered a sense of fear.

“Some IDPs called me and said: ‘We will vote for you, but please don’t visit us because it will cause problems for us here’,” she said.

“I want to support the community but I also need to keep them safe.”

Hussein, whose party has consistently petitioned for accountability for the security forces which abandoned the Yazidis to IS, is forbidden from entering Iraqi Kurdistan but did attempt to send a driver with business-card-sized campaign material. The car was turned back.

“In Iraqi Kurdistan, the ‘camps’ - we call them prisons - are fenced in and the [Kurdish intelligence units] Asayish have been going tent to tent, visiting families and threatening them, telling people if they don’t vote for the KDP, they will have benefits and food rations withheld,” Hussein claimed. “If the elections in the camps were free, fair, and transparent, I’m sure that 60 percent would vote for us, but they cannot because they are under threat.”

When the KDP sent an electoral delegation under armed escort to campaign in the Sinjar region, they were stopped at the first checkpoint and prevented from entering by alleged members of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) and disgruntled families who had been forcibly ejected from IDP camps.

“They said you can campaign here if our parties can campaign in the Yazidi camps, but the KDP would not agree,” one Sinouni resident told MEE.

On Thursday - the day before the special voting day reserved for IDPs, military forces (excluding Hashd al-Shaabi), hospital inpatients, and prisoners - Kalo received a call from an IDP saying Kurdish representatives had visited the camps, reminding residents to vote for the KDP and claiming CCTV cameras overlooking voting booths had been installed.

“Whether or not it’s true, people believed them and are now scared to vote as they wish,” she said.

Such issues have apparently been raised with the Political and Peacebuilding Affairs section of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq, which is overseeing electoral processes.

Meanwhile, many Yazidi IDPs are unable to vote at all. Although a low uptake of the new biometric ID card - originally mandatory to prevent fraud - prompted Baghdad to rescind this decision, allowing people to also vote with old-style national ID cards, this has changed little for many IDPs.

“You can now vote with your old ID card, but only in your hometown, and these Yazidis are far from Sinjar, so cannot vote,” explained a Sinjar resident.

Kalo said she had offered to provide free buses to Sinjar so displaced Yazidis could vote, but claimed Kurdish forces threatened that anyone who took up this offer would not be allowed back across the border.

How Iraq’s Yazidis across Sinjar choose to cast their votes on Sunday remains to be seen, and intense discussions about the anticipated results show it’s not clear-cut.

But, in the battle of the bunting in Sinouni, where KDP flags fly just at one checkpoint and PUK garlands are draped only outside their offices, it is Pade - with its bright red bunting stretching across all the main streets in town - that is the clear winner.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq ... determined

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Yazidis visit holiest temple during Autumn Assembly



Autumn Assembly is the highest and most important Yazidi holiday. It takes place in the holy city of Lalish, which is believed to be the place where creation began and where the seat of God descended to rule the earth. It also houses the tombs of Sheikh Adi and other holy figures. The town is considered so sacred that you are not allowed to enter while wearing shoes, especially during the assembly

Link to Photos:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/galle ... n-pictures

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Yazidi genocide exhibition:

Nobody’s Listening opens in Germany

A virtual reality project using real-life stories to highlight the horrors of ISIS’ genocide of the Yazidis has been launched in Germany

The region of Baden-Württemberg, which became one of the first places to offer asylum to Yazidi women who were survivors of ISIS, is hosting and part-funding the exhibition that opened this month.

In 2015, Baden-Württemberg launched a programme to rescue 1,000 Yazidi women who had been abused and tortured by ISIS, including Nobel laureate Nadia Murad.

She became a global ambassador for the Yazidi people and was able to highlight the atrocities committed against them.

Nobody's Listening hopes to raise awareness of the atrocity in Iraq in which ISIS terrorists killed more than 12,000 people.

It will be on at the ZKM Karlsruhe in the city of Karlsruhe until January.

"The Nobody’s Listening exhibition is an important way to remind people of the horrors of ISIS, but also to inspire action to ensure this never happens again to Yazidis, Christians or any other Iraqi community," Ivana Waleed, Yazidi activist and genocide survivor, said.

The project, which was developed by Yazidi charity Yazda, has received international support, with Amal Clooney, a barrister who specialises in international law and human rights, describing the virtual footage as moving.

Wearing a headset, viewers watch 12 minutes of virtual reality following the true stories of a Yazidi girl kidnapped as a slave by ISIS, her brother who escaped from the grip of terrorists and an ISIS fighter.

It is filmed in the Sinjar village of Kojo, birthplace of Nobel laureate Nadia Murad, whose mother was killed by ISIS, and is split into three chapters: before the genocide, during the atrocity and the devastation of the aftermath.

"Approximately 3,000 Yazidi women and children remain missing or in captivity, and not a single ISIS fighter has been brought to justice for the crime of genocide," the museum said.

"The exhibition explores the consequences of the genocidal campaign by ISIS and its devastating effect on persecuted communities and their cultural heritage through Virtual Reality technology, photography, and art works by Yazidi artists.

"Above all, Nobody's Listening pays tribute to the courage, determination, and agency of the survivors, and gives them a space where they can be heard by people around the world. Together they are one voice, calling for international recognition and justice."

An art exhibition is displayed alongside the project and includes pieces by Yazidi survivors.

The initiative was first launched at the University of Baghdad last year.

Link to Article - Photos:

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/u ... n-germany/