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Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat May 07, 2022 6:48 pm

Army has control of checkpoints

Iraqi army has recently been able to control up to 20 checkpoints in the Yazidi heartland of Shingal, an Iraqi national security advisor told Rudaw on Friday. The development follows weeks of clashes between the army and the militia group affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the district

Saeed al-Jaiashi, strategic affairs advisor at the Iraqi National Security Advisory, stated that the situation in Shingal has entered “a new stage” as the recent clashes between the army and the PKK-affiliated Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) has resulted in the removal of several checkpoints previously held by the YBS.

“Ten to 20 checkpoints have fallen to the control of the army, in addition to six checkpoints on the borders that have also been controlled by the Iraqi army,” Jaiashi told Rudaw’s Fuad Rahim on Friday.

The Iraqi army has been attempting to fully re-control Shingal since April 18. The YBS controlled parts of Shingal months after it was invaded by the Islamic State (ISIS) militants in summer 2014. Clashes between the army and the all-Yazidi force escalated on May 2 and the following day, leading to the death of a soldier and a militant. The situation has been calm since late Tuesday but people fear that the tensions could escalate any minute.

The Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) signed an agreement in 2020 to “normalize” the situation in Shingal whichs asks for the withdrawal of all armed forces and asks for the establishment of a force from locals to replace them. The agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies.

The KRG has claimed that Baghdad has failed to implement the agreement.

The advisor claimed that 70 percent of the security aspect of the agreement has been completed “on the ground” as Iraq’s interior ministry has successfully recruited 2500 policemen from the people of the city but Baghdad has failed to pay their salaries.

He said once the newly-recruited policemen are paid, they will replace the army and the army will retreat to the vicinity of Shingal and the bordering areas.

The tensions have once again displaced Shingal residents to the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province. Hundreds of thousands of them were displaced to the Kurdistan Region when ISIS attacked the district.

Pir Dayan Pir Jaafar, the head of Duhok province's migration and crisis office, told Rudaw on Friday that 711 families, consisting of 10,261 people, have been displaced from Shingal to Duhok province since May 2.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/07052022
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue May 10, 2022 12:30 am

Withdrawal of Iraqi army, PKK-affiliated militia

Dozens of people in Shingal blocked a main road on Friday, protesting the presence of the Iraqi army and a militia group affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in populated areas. They want only the Iraqi federal police to remain in these areas

The Iraqi army has been attempting to re-control the Yazidi heartland of Shingal from the PKK-affiliated Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) since April 18. The YBS controlled parts of Shingal months after it was invaded by the Islamic State (ISIS) militants in summer 2014. Clashes between the army and the all-Yazidi force escalated on May 2 and the following day, leading to the death of a soldier and a militant.

    Dozens of protesters have been calling for an end to the tensions in recent days,on Friday, they call for the withdrawal of both forces from the populated areas
“If the Iraqi army wants to protect us by firing at our women and children, we do not want such a protection,” Salim Shingali, a protester, told Rudaw’s Yousif Rabih, adding that they thank the YBS for helping them when ISIS attacked “but if they want our goodness, they should keep distance from our women, children and houses.”

“Our people have fallen victim [to the conflict]. Every day, there is a temporary deal. There should be a permanent agreement to put an end to the miseries,” said a female protester, Najwa Hajji.

    “No to death, yes to peaceful solution,” read a slogan held by a young woman
The situation has been calm since late Tuesday but people fear that the tensions could escalate any minute.

The tensions have once again displaced Shingal residents to the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province. Hundreds of thousands of them were displaced to the Kurdistan Region when ISIS attacked the district.

Pir Dayan Pir Jaafar, the head of Duhok province's migration and crisis office, told Rudaw on Friday that 711 families, consisting of 10,261 people, have been displaced from Shingal to Duhok province since May 2.

The Iraqi government and the KRG signed an agreement in 2020 to “normalize” the situation in Shingal, which includes the withdrawal of all PKK-affiliated forces in the city. The agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/060520223
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon May 16, 2022 11:12 pm

The World Has Forgotten Us:
    Islamic State's Yazidi genocide
Few studies have sought to understand the Yazidi people beyond their unfortunate victimhood. Austrian anthropologist Thomas Schmidinger's latest book avoids this simplistic temptation and presents a vivid portrayal of their plight

Thomas Schmidinger talks to the Yezidis in Iraq who tell the history of their people, why the genocide happened and how it affects their lives today [Pluto Books]

The Yazidis, an ethnoreligious group of around half a million people mainly living in Iraq, were catapulted into the global news cycle in August 2014.

During that month, the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) made rapid advancements in Iraq's northwestern Sinjar region.

The area, which is the homeland of the Yazidi people, saw how more than 3,000 adherents to this ancient faith were killed while 6,000 were captured.

The Yazidis had a long history before the tragic summer of 2014. In its current form, Yazidism dates back to the twelfth century, although it is certainly older. And, despite the most brutal form of intolerance displayed by the IS and the death and displacement brought by it, the Yazidis also have a future.

    "Schimidinger’s book has a strong virtue. The sympathy for the plight experienced by the Yazidi people does not come at the expense of leaving aside some of the most controversial aspects of Yazidism"
In his latest book, The World Has Forgotten Us: Sinjar and the Islamic State’s Genocide of the Yazidis, University of Vienna Political Scientist and Anthropologist Thomas Schmidinger presents two key realities.

On the one hand, the efforts by ISIS to destroy the Yazidis are by no means an isolated event but represent the culmination of centuries of discrimination.

On the other hand, the Yazidis are much more than a long-prosecuted people. Rather, they are a group with distinct cultural and religious practices that have traditionally been poorly understood. One of the most commonly held myths is that the Yazidis are worshipers of the devil.

The World Has Forgotten Us is structured into two parts. The first one is an essay that covers the Yazidis’ history up to the present day. Although it is logical that the focus of the historical account is on the last century, the reader would probably have liked to learn more about the Yazidis’ ancient history, to which Schmidinger dedicates a few pages.

The second part of the book is a collection of interviews with prominent Yazidis conducted by the author over the years. The volume also features photographs taken by the Austrian academician during his research on the ground.

One of the constants in the history of the Yazidis is state attempts to rein in their autonomous organisation.

During the nineteenth century, different Ottoman generals were tasked with imposing taxation in Sinjar. In 1915, the ancestral lands of the Yazidis would become a refuge for thousands of Armenian Christians fleeing Ottoman prosecution.

With the creation of an independent state in Iraq and its strengthening in the following decades, the Yazidis were subjected to a new level of state interference. For the Yazidis living in the Sinjar mountains, “the period of Ba’thist rule over Iraq represented a massive caesura in their traditional lifestyle.” (p. 46)

Under Saddam Hussein, indigenous Yazidis were deported from their villages and re-settled in collective towns. The situation after the downfall of the Iraqi dictator was not necessarily better.

With the change of regime, some Muslim Arabs resettled by Saddam to Sinjar started to gravitate towards the jihadist underground. They “regarded the occupation of the country by the United States and the presence of Kurdish militias as humiliating.” (p. 53) In August 2007, two truck bombings masterminded by al-Qaeda left more than 500 Yazidis dead.

    "Thomas Schmidinger presents an account of the Yazidis living in northern Iraq that eschews simplistic narratives presenting the Yazidis as nothing more than the victims of genocide"
The 2007 terrorist attacks were the prelude to the 2014 Yazidi Genocide, recognised as such by the UN and the European Union and numerous national parliaments.

The ultimate responsibility for the atrocious acts perpetrated on the Yazidis undoubtedly lies in the hands of ISIS members.

This notwithstanding, many Yazidis believe that the peshmerga, the military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, could have bought time for more Yazidi civilians to escape to the Sinjar mountains and Syria if they had put up a fight against ISIS in August 2014 instead of withdrawing.

In an interview with the author, Haydar Shesho, the commander of the HPÊ Yazidi militia, expressed his conviction that “the KDP [the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan] were quite content to leave Sinjar and that there was an agreement with IS allowing it to take over.” (p. 178)

In weighing in the different strands of evidence, Schmidinger notes that the secret agreements concluded during those convulsed days were very opaque.

Still, there is no denying that the peshmerga of the KDP retreated without a fight in August 2014, and “hesitated for a long time to advance in the direction of the mountain regions,” (p. 91) where the Yazidis were deeply in need

The Yazidis that suffered the worst fate were the ones living in the southern areas of Yazidi settlement in Iraq, further away from the Sinjar Mountains and northern Syria.

That was the case of Kocho, one of the collective towns created under Saddam. In that town, 600 men and boys were slaughtered by IS. Women survived, only to be enslaved and subjected to sexual violence.

Nadia Murad, the Yazidi human rights defender who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, is originally from Kocho.

    "The World Has Forgotten Us: Sinjar and the Islamic State’s Genocide of the Yazidis is thorough in its approach but accessible in its style. It represents a key work in the path of making Yazidism in Iraq better understood"
Schimidinger’s book has a strong virtue. The sympathy for the plight experienced by the Yazidi people does not come at the expense of leaving aside some of the most controversial aspects of Yazidism.

Traditionally, Yazidis have shunned and even killed women from their group who engaged in sexual intercourse with non-Yazidis, regardless of whether the relationship was consensual or not.

Consequently, women would even face punishment for being abused. After the return of many Yazidi women subjected to sexual violence by IS, the Yazidi spiritual leader Baba Sheikh worked against these practices and introduced a baptism ritual that welcomed these women back into the community.

What happens, however, when women voluntarily want to establish a relationship with a non-Yazidi, something that is happening more often in recent times due to the large number of Yazidis living abroad after the genocide?

Akhin Intiqam, commander of the female YJŞ Yazidi militia, explains to Schmidinger that the group she leads tries to convince women not to marry Muslims.

Questioned by the Austrian researcher on whether this may contradict the emancipatory spirit of her political movement, she replies that this is not the case because “they don’t kill these girls but only give them advice and try to convince them by arguments.” (p. 227)

Thomas Schmidinger presents an account of the Yazidis living in northern Iraq that eschews simplistic narratives presenting the Yazidis as nothing more than the victims of genocide.

At the same time, it is obvious that the Yazidis need help both from within Iraq and internationally to return to their ancestral lands with safety guarantees, especially considering that former IS members continue to live in northern Iraq.

The World Has Forgotten Us: Sinjar and the Islamic State’s Genocide of the Yazidis is thorough in its approach but accessible in its style. It represents a key work in making Yazidism in Iraq better understood.

Marc Martorell Junyent is a graduate in International Relations, currently finishing a MA in Comparative and Middle East Politics and Society at the University of Tübingen (Germany). He has been published in the London School of Economics Middle East Blog, Middle East Monitor, Inside Arabia, Responsible Statecraft and Global Policy.

Follow him on Twitter: @MarcMartorell3

https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/ ... i-genocide
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue May 17, 2022 11:24 pm

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Fire tears through IDP camp in Duhok

Caused by an electrical short circuit, a fire tore through Khanke camp at around 5:00 am in the morning, head of the camp Pir Alo told Rudaw's Hunar Rasheed, causing material damage

Initial reports said at least eight tents were burned inside the camp, but Alo confirmed to Rudaw that seven camps were destroyed in the fire.

The blaze did not cause any casualties or injuries.

Khanke camp is home to over 14,000 Yazidis who continue to live in displacement after they fled their homes in Shingal when the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked the area in 2014.

Fires and floods pose a constant hazard to many displacement camps in the Kurdistan Region.

An overnight fire at another Yazidi displacement camp led to the death of one person and the injury of two others in April.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/150520221
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:30 pm

Yazidi sisters plead for 12-year-old brother

When Layla Alhussein fled Iraq in 2018 and came to Winnipeg with her sister Amal, she believed the rest of her family was dead, except for one sister who stayed behind in a refugee camp

But in 2020, she learned her little brother Ayad, then 10 years old, was alive, and had been rescued after five years in ISIS captivity.

"It was a very, very happy moment," Alhussein said, "I can't believe he's alive."

Now, after two years of trying to bring her brother to Canada from a refugee camp in Iraq, she's desperate for the government to speed up the process.

She wants the government to be more forthcoming about the status of applications and tell families what they need to do to move their applications forward.

She also wants a timeline so she can provide answers to families who are calling her every day for an update.

"Every day I get up and I try to go about my life, [but the] number one thing for me right now is Ayad," Alhussein said.

Ayad lives in a refugee camp in Iraq. (Submitted by Layla Alhussein)

Ayad is currently living in a Yazidi refugee camp in Iraq. He's told Alhussein that during his years in ISIS captivity, he was chained to a tree by his neck and legs and not allowed to go to the bathroom.

Yazidis, a religious minority based mainly in northern Iraq, follow an ancient religion that combines elements from Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam.

They were persecuted by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, who considered them heretics. In 2016, a United Nations report declared that the slaughter, sexual slavery, indoctrination and other crimes committed against the 400,000 Yazidi amounted to genocide.

The last time Alhussein saw Ayad was before their entire family was captured by ISIS in August of 2014. He hasn't known safety since he was four years old.

Alhussein was among the refugees selected as part of the federal government's 2017 commitment to settle 1,200 Yazidi refugees and ISIS survivors.

Layla Alhussein, second from left, stands with her sister Amal, left, her husband, Nazir, second from right, and her son, Levan, front. Omar Rahimi, a family friend who also provided translation, stands with them on the right. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Though she feared he was dead, when she arrived to Canada, Alhussein held out hope Ayad would be found, and she declared him a dependent in her application.

That meant she should have been able to sponsor her brother through the federal government's one-year window program, which allows a family member to come to Canada as a dependent of a permanent resident who arrived here as a refugee within the past year.

The application for Ayad was filed in January 2020.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says in March 2021, the department requested paperwork from Alhussein by email that needed to be completed within 90 days, but said that form hasn't yet been submitted.

Alhussein says she was never contacted and has not heard from officials since she applied over two years ago.

The federal immigration department says it's committed to reuniting families, but could not offer a timeline for processing this type of application.

The president of the Canadian Yazidi Association, Jamileh Naso, is working closely with the Alhussein family in conjunction with Operation Ezra, a Winnipeg multifaith grassroots group that has worked to privately sponsor Yazidi refugee families.

Jamileh Naso is the President of the Canadian Yazidi Association. (Jaison Empson/CBC)

Naso said the family's willingness to speak to media is evidence of how desperate they are for reunification, because there are risks making in their stories public.

If someone finds out Ayad is trying to reconnect with his family in Canada, he risks being recaptured.

"It could be really easy for an ISIS member to pay someone off in the camp, get in there, and take the boy overnight. No one will know what happened to him," Naso said.

Alhussein is eager for her brother to come to Canada. She wants to pick him up at the airport and take him to the store so he can pick out a bike.

"I want him here so he can be free," Alhussein said, "He's not free."

Sisters plead with government to expedite brother's application to Canada
Yazidi refugee Layla Alhussein arrived in Canada with her sister Amal in January of 2018. They had no idea their little brother was alive until they received word he was liberated from ISIS captivity in early 2020.

Link to Article - Photos - Video:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba ... -1.6470125
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon Jun 06, 2022 12:47 am

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Group cut off ears of Yazidi

As soon as the Champions League final match between Real Madrid and Liverpool came to an end last week, Wajdi Zedan left a cafeteria at the Sharya Camp where he had gone to watch it with friends. While returning home at around 1 am, three unidentified people attacked him, cutting off his ears after severely beating him up for reasons he still does not understand

A week into the incident, the perpetrators have remained at large. Zedan, 18, says he was beaten unconscious in the early hours of May 29. When he woke up, he saw blood had covered his entire body and realized his ears were gone.

"Somebody beat me up from behind and then they became three people. Then I fell. I heard their voices, but I did not recognize them and did not even see their faces because it was night," Zedan told Rudaw on Saturday, recounting the horror he went through.

"When I regained consciousness, I saw my entire body had been covered with blood. I took out my mobile and took a selfie. I saw my ears were cut off. I was scared of my face," he said.

Zedan is from the town of Sipai Sheikh Khidhir, in the district of Shingal. He has been living at the Sharya camp along with his family since 2014, when Islamic State (ISIS) militants overran their homeland, brutally murdering and enslaving thousands of his community.

Two hours after the incident, police forces arrived at the scene, finding only one of his ears. Jalal Ali, Zedan's uncle, says they took the piece of the ear to his doctors, but they were disappointed to learn that it could not be joined back to his head in any surgeries.

His family have lodged a lawsuit against the unknown perpetrators. Under the command of Ali Tatar, the governor, a probe into the incident has been launched.

"No one has been apprehended as of yet in relation to this incident. Investigations have already been done with a number of [suspects] but the perpetrators have not yet been identified," Hemin Sulaiman, spokesperson for Duhok Police, said.

Sulaimani went on to add that, "God willing... the identity of those who have done this will be revealed and they will face justice and receive the harshest kind of punishment."

Sharya camp is home to displaced Yazidis who fled Shingal from ISIS. According to UNHCR Iraq, there are currently 135,703 individuals, mainly Yazidis, in 15 camps in Duhok and Nineveh governorates, as well around 195,000 further IDPs living independently in the area, 90 percent of whom are Yazidis, placing the total number of displaced Yazidis in the Kurdistan Region at around 300,000.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/050620221
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:21 pm

$1 million to enhance Shingal security

The Iraqi government on Tuesday dedicated over one million dollars to boost the ability of troops in Shingal district where the presence of various armed groups has resulted in insecurity

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi presided a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, deciding to “dedicate 1.5 billion dinars ($1.012 million) to the Joint Operations Command in order to enhance security in the Sinjar sector,” read a statement from his office, using the Arabic word for Shingal.

The Yazidi heartland of Shingal, which is disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, has seen instability, insecurity and lack of basic services since the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked it in 2014. The district has been controlled by armed groups affiliated to the federal government, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Some of these forces have clashed over land control in recent years. The PKK-affiliated Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) and the Iraqi army clashed several times in the last couple of months after Baghdad wanted full control of the town’s main checkpoints. This led to the death of an Iraqi soldier.

Hundreds of people fled to Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province due to the clashes. Around 200,000 Yazidis who fled Shingal in 2014 still live in the Kurdistan Region, many of whom linger in IDP camps and live well below the poverty line.

The Iraqi government and the KRG signed an agreement in 2020 to “normalize” the situation in Shingal, which includes the withdrawal of all PKK-affiliated forces in the city. The agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) chief Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on May 17 raised a series of recent developments in Iraq to the UN Security Council in New York, including the Shingal Agreement.

She called on both Erbil and Baghdad to reach out to the people of Shingal, and for the speedy implementation of the agreement.

“But for that to happen, stable governance and security structures are - of course - prerequisites… to date, there is no agreement on the selection of a new independent mayor, and funds for a new local security force remain blocked, possibly due to interference into unclear recruitment procedures,” she noted.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/140620222
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Jun 15, 2022 4:51 pm

Turkish drone targets YBS

A suspected Turkish drone on Wednesday targeted the headquarters of a militia group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Shingal, causing injuries and civilian casualties, local sources confirmed to Rudaw

The drone targeted the headquarters of Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) in Snune sub-district at least twice, according to Rudaw’s ground reporter Yousif Rabih and media outlets affiliated with the PKK.

A health official from Snune’s hospital told Rabih that the attack killed at least one person and injured 10 others, mostly civilians.

However, Firat News Agency (ANF) affiliated with the PKK raised the toll of deaths to two, noting that there are no official numbers of those injured.

There have been no comments from neither Turkey nor Shingal’s autonomous administration regarding the incident as of yet.

A child, Salah Nasir, was killed in the attack, his father said in a Facebook post. Iraqi political parties and Yazidi rights activists condemned the child's death.

The YBS controlled parts of Shingal months after it was invaded by the Islamic State (ISIS) militants in summer 2014

Ankara occasionally carries out such attacks against the YBS in Shingal where several armed forces affiliated with the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the PKK, and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are present.

A military official of the YBS was killed in an airstrike by the Turkish army in the town in December.

Turkey considers the YBS to be an offshoot of the PKK, an armed group fighting for the enhanced rights of Kurds in Turkey. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, which carries out regular military campaigns against the group at home and in northern Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/150620221
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:38 am

UK lawyers gather evidence

A group of high-level British lawyers have been working privately on compiling evidence to show that one or more countries failed in their international obligations to prevent genocide against the Yazidis in northern Iraq

The lawyers, who formally announced their collaboration as the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC) on Tuesday, have been working over the past two and a half years to investigate the genocide committed from early 2013 by Islamic State.

The group includes five international human rights organisations and is chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, formerly a lead prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Its lead patrons are the peers Helena Kennedy QC and David Alton.

The YJC is expected to name three countries in a report next month when the work is complete.

It would be one of the first times that states have faced the risk of proceedings being instituted against them for failing to prevent genocide, and could open up a new form of human rights accountability.

The YJC lawyers, working pro bono, have examined evidence that as many as 10 countries could be deemed responsible for the failure to prevent genocide under the UN’s Genocide Convention, and could be brought before a court of law. The aim is to bring those states before the international court of justice (ICJ), a step that would require another country to take action. If the case was successful, the respondent states might be required to pay reparations to the victims of genocide.

Under article 1 of the 73-year-old convention, states have a responsibility to prevent, prosecute and punish the crime of genocide.

There has been virtually no accountability for the Yazidi genocide except for a prosecution in Germany last November of a single Islamic State fighter who was found guilty of genocide over the death of a five-year-old Yazidi girl he bought as a slave in 2015.

The Frankfurt trial was based on the principle of universal jurisdiction to address crimes under international law that were committed abroad by a perpetrator who is not a German citizen and who was only extradited to Germany on the basis of an international arrest warrant.

The YJC says there is evidence the genocide is still taking place, and that Yazidis remain in an extremely precarious position in Iraq and Syria largely as a result of the recent resurgence of Islamic State, Turkish drone strikes and an overall sense of neglect by the Iraqis.

It is widely acknowledged that more than 5,000 Yazidis have been killed and more than 400,000 displaced from their homes. To date, at least 2,800 Yazidi women and children are still being held captive by Islamic State or remain missing.

Aarif Abraham, an international human rights barrister and co-founder of the YJC, said the report would be the first to consider the issue of state responsibility in relation to the Yazidi genocide. He said: “It will serve to put states on notice of their binding obligations to prevent genocide through using all means reasonably available.”

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/ju ... ocide-iraq
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Jun 23, 2022 2:04 am

Yazidis demands self-determination

PADÊ co-chair Omar Salih spoke to ANF about an official visit of a delegation from Shengal to Iraqi President Barham Salih. The essential demand is self-determination, the Yazidi politician stated

A delegation from Shengal held an official meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih at his official residence on 19 June. The discussion focused on the situation in Shengal and Iraq and the demands of the Yazidi community. Omar Salih, co-chairman of the Yazidi party PADÊ, was part of the delegation.

According to Salih, talks took place in Shengal beforehand to determine the members of the delegation and to prepare a report for the Iraqi government on the current situation, the existing problems, possible solutions and the demands of the Yazidi society.

The delegation was composed of representatives from Ittihad Wetanî, Teqaddûm, PADÊ, the Yazidi women's movement TAJÊ, the Shengal Autonomous Council, the Christian and Turkmen communities and other representatives. "There were about twenty of us and we presented the demands of our people to Barham Salih," said Omar Salih, adding that the delegation represented the entire population of Shengal.

According to Omar Salih, the basic demand of the delegation is the self-determination of the people living in Shengal. An important topic during the discussion was the situation of the people displaced from Shengal during the ISIS onslaught in 2014. The PADÊ co-chair said that their return is prevented for political reasons. "We are not hostile to anyone and no one has driven the KDP out of Shengal," Omar Salih explained. Rather, he said, the KDP suddenly withdrew in 2014 and left the population to the massacres of ISIS.

“Some are trying to stir up conflicts within the Yazidi community and turn people against each other. We will not allow that. We are ready for dialogue with all Yazidis, our door is always open for talks. What is important to us above all is alliance in order to protect Shengal and our people. We also appeal to the people for this.

The MIT (Turkish intelligence service) has established itself everywhere and, unfortunately, there are also Yazidis in Shengal who work together with the Turkish secret service. Denunciations are taking place. The Turkish state wants to occupy Diyala, Selahaddin and Ambar as well as Mosul and Kirkuk and is acting very aggressively," said Omar Salih.
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Jun 25, 2022 9:37 am

International aid decreasing

DUHOK (Kurdistan 24) – As the world marked World Refugee Day on June 20, 131,700 refugees, mostly Syrians, still live in Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province. That number increased following Turkey’s last major military operation in northeast Syria in October 2019

The people of Duhok, despite enduring hardships of their own, warmly welcomed all these IDPs and refugees.

Syrian refugees in Duhok presently don’t see an opportunity to safely return to their country. Similarly, IDPs from Sinjar are reluctant to return due to continued instability there.

Meanwhile, aid for these people has gradually decreased, leaving Duhok’s local government in a difficult situation as it tries to maintain services for this population.

In a speech marking World Refugee Day on June 20 in Duhok city, the acting representative of the UN refugee agency in Iraq, Nicole Epting, thanked the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the people of Duhok for their continued efforts and support to ensure refugees and displaced are supported.

Epting also noted that they reached a tragic new milestone just a few days ago. A record 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes worldwide. More needs to be done by all countries to address this, Epting said.

According to data provided to Kurdistan 24 by the Department of Migration and Displacement and Crisis Response in Duhok, there are 19,580 refugee families living in the province, 11,261 of which live inside five camps. Over 8,000 refugee families reside outside the camps.

According to the data, 26,321 IDP families live inside 15 camps and 38,270 outside camps in Duhok province.

Water maintenance in Domiz 1 and Domiz 2 refugee camps has been funded by UNICEF for years. However, this was disrupted after their contract ended on June 1.

Dayan Jaffar, director of the Department of Migration and Displacement and Crisis Response in Duhok, said that a conference is expected to be held in the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil to discuss the matter with the UN and the Iraqi migration and displaced ministry.

Relevant authorities in Duhok believe that the Iraqi government must address this issue, especially since the Iraqi finance minister expressed optimism about Iraq’s financial situation a few months ago.

Jaffar suggested that the Iraqi government has two choices. It can either help provide aid to the camps or stabilize the situation in Sinjar so the displaced can return. The latter option, he said, is possible by implementing the UN-sponsored Sinjar agreement signed between Erbil and Baghdad in October 2020.

The KRG has reiterated that it will not force any displaced person back to their places of origin or shut down any of the camps in the Kurdistan Region as long as they are needed. On the other hand, the Iraqi government has ordered the closure of camps.

When ISIS displaced hundreds of thousands of Yezidis from Sinjar beginning in August 2014, humanitarian organizations generously provided aid. More recently, however, less aid has been provided by international non-government organizations (NGOs), said Jaffar.

He also proposed that a conference should be organized to tackle the issue of Sinjar’s neighboring Arab community since many of them collaborated with ISIS in their genocidal atrocities against Yezidis. That community should help by bringing forward people involved in those crimes so that trust can be rebuilt between Arabs and Yezidis, he said.

Thousands of houses in Yezidi towns and villages were destroyed by ISIS and the coalition,. they need to be rebuilt to facilitate resettlement.

And most importantly, Yezidis must be compensated because they suffered a genocide that must be internationally recognized, he said.

Jaffar predicts that aid will further decrease over the next year due to all the new conflicts in the world.

“It’s not only about financial aid. Yezidis have survived genocide. They need support and attention. Otherwise, their psychological conditions will only worsen,” he warned.

The KRG spends hundred of millions of Iraqi dinars monthly to provide electricity for the camps. In Duhok, Jaffar’s directorate has not been able to pay the Ministry of Electricity the 171 billion Iraqi dinars ($117 million) it owes.

It is the duty of the Iraqi government, especially the ministry of migration and displaced, to pay for camps’ electricity and water, said Dayan.

On May 2, at least 10,000 formerly displaced people from Sinjar were displaced yet again after clashes erupted between the Iraqi Security Forces and armed groups inside Sinjar. Now, these displaced want security guarantees before they consider returning again.

Rashid Elyas, an IDP from Sinjar, said they still can’t return since the region is still full of different armed groups.

Buhar Daud, another IDP, said they wished they could return to Sinjar today before tomorrow. However, this is infeasible until conditions in Sinjar change so she and her family can return safely.

In a region that suffers frequent conflicts, a new wave of refugees is always something for which preparations need to be made. In light of this dire reality, the Department of Migration and Displacement and Crisis Response in Duhok is compelled to make preparations and take precautions at all times.

Link to Article - Photos:

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/28 ... decreasing
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Jun 29, 2022 2:00 am

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More mass graves Shengal

6 more mass graves are being opened in Shengal, where ISIS committed massacres in 2014

    On August 3, 2014, many villages and districts in the Yazidi town of Shengal in Southern Kurdistan were subjected to all-out slaughter by ISIS. Those who were killed in the onslaught were buried in mass graves. Of the 87 mass graves located in Shengal since, 34 have been opened so far
As the anniversary of the massacre against the Yazidi people is looming, the fate of those who disappeared during the massacre has been brought to the agenda once again. The Iraqi government is currently opening the mass graves where those murdered during the massacre are buried.

The exhumation of the remains of victims in 6 mass graves has started in the village of Qinde, located in the southeast of Shengal. According to witnesses, nearly 100 people are buried in the mass graves.

Hundreds of people with pictures of the victims gathered in the area of the mass graves. A delegation of the Shengal Autonomous Administration was also present in the village of Qinê where the mass graves were opened.

The bodies to be exhumed will be sent to Baghdad for DNA tests. The remains of the victims will then be handed over to their families once their identity information is clarified after DNA tests.

It is reported that the work in mass graves will last a few days.
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:34 pm

At 10 hospitalized after fire

A fire swept through an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Duhok province on Thursday, hospitalizing at least 10 of the camp’s residents, according to the head of Zakho’s civil defense

The fire broke out at Bajet Kandala, an IDP camp housing Yazidis near Zakho, at around 11am, burning up to 20 of the camp’s large tents, Khalid Saaid, director of Zakho civil defense, told Rudaw’s Yousif Musa on Thursday.

Believed to be caused by an electrical short circuit, the incident sent around 10 of the camp’s residents to the hospital, but did not result in any casualties.

Bajet Kandala houses over 1,690 families, numbering 8,450 individuals, according to data provided by the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for May.

Fires are a common occurrence in the Kurdistan Region’s displacement camps.

In May, a fire tore through Duhok’s Khanke camp, burning at least eight tents, without any injuries afflicted upon the residents.

In 2021, an explosion at Qadia camp in Duhok killed two children, including a one-month old baby, and injured two other children.

Thousands of Yazidis still remain in IDP camps despite ISIS being driven away from their lands, as their homes are in need of reconstruction

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/300620221
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Jul 05, 2022 1:43 am

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Plight of Yazidi survivors continues
    Their voices unheard
The absolute aim of the Islamic State (ISIS) was not only to control land and spread terror, but to eradicate the Yazidi minority for the benefit of the caliphate they were consolidating

The 2014 ruthless genocidal campaign to eliminate the Yazidi culture by a system of sexual slavery in which women were routinely and persistently traded, with their bodies assaulted and violated in the most brutal ways.

The highest religious authority of the Yazidis, Khurto Hajji Ismael, known otherwise as Baba Sheikh, responded to ISIS’ brutal acts against the community and made an unprecedented call for family re-unification on February 6, 2015, stating that all Yazidis who were coerced into ISIS, both men and women, remain untarnished and should be welcomed back into the community after they were rescued from the hands of the terror group.

ISIS controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014 but it was territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively. However, that did not put an end to the dilemma of Yazidis.

While Yazidi survivors live in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps that lack basic day-to-day needs, many ISIS affiliates and suspects live comfortably in Europe and elsewhere around the world.

The survivors of ISIS captivity, Yazidi activists, and individuals have done a lot of work for the community. However, a lot more needs to be done to find those who remain missing.

In April 2019, the Yazidi Supreme Spiritual Council issued a more important though short-lived decree saying the community would accept children born to mothers who were raped by ISIS militants, clearing the way for hundreds of women to return home.

Theologically, Yazidism is an endogamous faith that requires its members to marry from within their own community but the decree issued by Yazidi Supreme Spiritual Council was based on humanitarian grounds.

However, under pressure from Yazidi traditionalists and political groups, the decree was retracted three days later – women survivors and children kidnapped by the militant group were welcomed back to the community, but there was no place for the children whose father was an ISIS member.

This presented women intended to return home with a stark choice: abandon their children or remain in an everlasting exile. By all accounts, the Yazidi genocide is continuing.

Statistics on the number of abductees and returnees are held by the Office of Kidnapped Yazidis in Duhok, yet without knowing the exact number of Yazidis killed by ISIS, it is impossible to know the exact number of those still missing.

Many of the missing, particularly men and older boys, are assumed to be dead. Others, mostly women, are still held captive in Syria. Hundreds are believed to be kept inside the al-Hol camp run by the Kurdish- led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

But the question that poses itself is why do Yazidi girls and women refuse to reveal their identity and prefer this new medieval type of life to the prospect of starting a new one in a different country? There are two basic reasons for that:

The first is that most of the girls were abducted when they were around four to five years old and were subjected to ISIS indoctrination over the past seven years. Coercively dislocated, many of them have forgotten that they are Yazidis.

ISIS turned children against their culture, pulling them away from their families and relatives. They have been significantly impacted by the militant group and are brainwashed as they have spent their early and crucial years of life under the so-called caliphate.

With the specific intent of erasing Yazidis, ISIS fighters moved captivated Yazidis as far away as possible from their homelands to different parts across Iraq and Syria. They took them to areas where ISIS ideologists and Sharia law jurists gave lectures about how Yazidis were “infidels” and that they would not be accepted into the community if they return.

The profound psychological impact of seven years of captivity and the loss of family members is sensed in the community. A growing suicide rate is one sign of how difficult the returnees are finding it to reintegrate.

Mothers are not willing to abandon their children as they are well aware of the taboos engulfing the community that rejects marriage to non-Yazidis. Rape and impregnation by non-Yazidis is seen as a harsh hit to the Yazidi bloodline.

The public and ferocious stoning to death in 2007 of Du'a Khalil Aswad is evocative. Khalil had eloped with a Muslim and instinctively converted to Islam.

Mother-child segregation is a huge stumbling stone in the way of full re-integration of Yazidis. Mothers were falsely told that they would be allowed to visit their beloved ones, but they never dared to talk about them.

There are some exceptional cases of abandonment where mothers left their children behind as they viewed them as an unbearable reminder of being brutalized and raped by ISIS members. However, the vast majority do not want to leave their flesh behind.

The commodification of Yazidi women and girls left scars on individuals and the community alike. Some women and girls were sold and re-sold individually or collectively. Such dehumanizing acts were perpetrated strategically to destroy the individual and tear apart the group.

Physically and emotionally scarred by long years of abuse they seem unable to undergo new transformation. Psychologically, these women are destroyed, while culturally they are rejected.

The Iraqi Parliament, after prolonged debate, passed in March 2021 a law, legally recognizing ISIS crimes against Yazidis as genocide and mandating, among others, a decent life for female survivors.

Seemingly ground-breaking, the pompous law was too narrow to address the needs of the people in question, notably the fate of the children born to ISIS fighters.

Strikingly, in the very same month, nine Yazidi mothers were reportedly reunited with their twelve babies who were in an orphanage inside Syria. The secret operation was carried out at the Syrian Iraqi Faishkhabur-Semalka border crossing.

It seems, though strange, that after long years of family loss and dismemberment, many Yazidi girls and women now feel the comfort and protection of the new culture they unwillingly entered and they do not wish to leave.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/04072022
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Jul 07, 2022 12:54 am

Turkey should face international
    court over Yazidi genocide
The British newspaper The Guardian published a feature about a report, compiled by a group of prominent human rights lawyers, saying that Turkey should face charges in front of the international court of justice for being complicit in acts of genocide against the Yazidi people.

The groundbreaking report is seeking to highlight the binding responsibility states have to prevent genocide on their territories, even if they are carried out by a third party such as Islamic State (IS).

The lawyers, grouped under the title of the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC), said there was accountability under international law for states to prevent the crime of genocide under the Genocide Convention. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, chair of the YJC, described the genocide of the Yazidi people as “madness heaped on evil”.

“Turkish officials knew and/or were wilfully blind to evidence that these individuals would use this training to commit prohibited acts against the Yazidis,” the report said.

The report noted similar allegations have been made against some Gulf states, including Qatar, but insufficient evidence was produced.

The 278-page report acknowledged that by June 2014, Iraq had called on the UN to recognise the atrocities committed by IS, but accused the Iraqi government of not coordinating with Kurdish authorities or taking measures to evacuate the Yazidis to safety.

The Syrian government, the report alleged, failed to prevent the transfer and detention of enslaved Yazidis on its territory.
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