Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

Mourners stand next to the coffins with the remains of Yazidis

Search continues for missing Yazidi women

It is one of the most horrific acts of genocide in human history: the systematic attempt by ISIS to murder the Yazidi minority community in Iraq and then sell its women and children into slavery

ISIS, an Islamist extremist group, specifically targeted the Yazidis as a non-Muslim minority community, using theocratic concepts akin to Nazism that portrayed them as sub-humans to be traded as slaves. They numbered them, like the Nazis did to Jews, and transported them to centers to be photographed and traded. Most horrific, they sold them to men to be raped, with the videos of the men cheering the “right” to rape slaves often being posted online at the time.

Now, seven years later, the minority community is seeking to raise awareness that 2,900 people are still missing. There are hashtags and an online media campaign. Many children were kidnapped or raised by ISIS in families. Some were taken to Al-Hol camp where they have been found over the last several years.

In some horrific cases, European ISIS members, some of them from places like Germany who were converts to Islam and whose grandparents may have been Nazis two generations ago, participated in the enslavement and murder of Yazidis. One woman on trial in Germany left a little girl outside to die in the hot sun.

For Yazidis who want to know the fate of the children, this is a kind of last chance. Many of the children were forcibly brainwashed and indoctrinated. But the international community has done little for the Yazidis. While millions are plowed into some other areas in the Middle East, there is little investment or aid for Yazidis and Sinjar. Some efforts to document the mass graves and catalogue the missing and the genocide continue slowly. Online activists are asking for help to rescue kidnapped Yazidis.

The attempted genocide happened in 2014 when ISIS launched a surprise attack on Sinjar in northern Iraq that August. The Yazidi towns and villages were spread out on flatlands beneath Mount Sinjar and they had few weapons to defend themselves. They had been targeted by jihadists before, including numerous genocides over the years. Some 500,000 fled overnight as ISIS attacked, but many thousands of men and women ended up in the hands of the religious extremist criminals.

ISIS was methodical in its sorting of the people it had captured. This was not spontaneous, but planned. They captured the villages and separated the men and women.

When I went to Sinjar in 2015, a year after the genocide, the mass graves were just being found, documenting what was done. ISIS took the men and elderly women and shot them, burying their bodies in shallow graves. Then, it took the children and women and transported them for sale in Mosul or Syria. There they were paraded and even sold online on social media and messaging applications.

Big tech companies have done nothing to help the families of the missing trace and find those who were offered for sale on their platforms. In many cases, the companies closed down millions of pro-ISIS accounts but didn’t save the evidence of trafficking and selling of people to help the victims. This is because the companies know their profits might be harmed if it was shown they knew their platforms were used for modern day slavery.

Now, years later, after the online slave auctions closed down and ISIS had been defeated and crushed by the US-led international coalition, Kurdish fighters and Shi’ite militias, the families of the Yazidis wonder where their loved ones are. Even those who have been found face a difficult journey.

Some women emerged from captivity with children. For the community this has been difficult. Iraq demands that the children be raised as Muslims, presuming that the fathers were ISIS members and thus “Muslims.” For the community this is impossible: How can a minority group be forced to raise their children in another faith? Iraqi law cares about the religion of the father

Some of those facing the complexities of Iraqi law, and of children rejected by the community under these rules, have been aided to go to Europe. But this is just a handful.

The real story is the 2,900 missing; the community wants answers and help. Even if they perished in the war, people want to know where the bodies are.

In general they have not provided any resources or hi-tech facilities to aid in tracing the victims of ISIS or aiding the survivors. That isn’t entirely surprising.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/searc ... sis-669239

[Anthea]

Bring home loved ones kidnapped by ISIS

Yazidis across Iraq and further afield are renewing calls for the return of their missing relatives, almost seven years after they were kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS)

On Thursday, members of the Yazidi Youth Network held a demonstration calling for the return of their loved ones in Sinune, a town north of Mount Sinjar which sheltered hundreds of thousands of Yazidis as ISIS swept through Shingal in summer 2014, killing and taking captive thousands of Yazidis.

“For Yazidis, ISIS is still strong and our genocide continues, since we are displaced and our women and children are missing,” network president Samia Qassim told Rudaw English on Wednesday night. According to Qassim, rallies were also planned elsewhere in Iraq, including in Baghdad.

According to figures from the Kurdistan Regional Government Office for Kidnapped Yazidis, 6,417 Yazidis were kidnapped by ISIS in August 2014. Almost 3,000 remain missing.

Although many were either rescued or escaped from captivity, the trickle of returnees has slowed. Women and children have been found as far away as Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey. On Monday, the Free Yezidi Foundation said the “most likely places” to look for survivors are in Turkey and Syria.

“We want an inclusive campaign in Iraq and abroad to look for our missing people. The government should act with commitment and support in searching for them,” Qassim added. “We know many Yazidis are in Iraq and Syria.”

The call for action has also spread on social media.

Adar Murad, a student in the Kurdistan Region, says efforts to bring home the missing are particularly important following the return of almost 100 Iraqi families from al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Rojava), where a number of Yazidi captives have previously been found.

“We need to know the fate of those kidnapped. The Yazidi community is angry, because the Iraqi government doesn’t respect our genocide and instead of searching and bringing back the kidnapped, it brings back ISIS families who admit they are still ISIS," she told Rudaw English.

“It is a government that has insulted us and our feelings, and it proves that we are not considered as Iraqi citizens.”

On Wednesday, Rudaw interviewed a woman returning to Iraq from al-Hol, who admitted her husband enslaved a Yazidi woman.

“I am the wife of a man who took a Yazidi infidel woman,” said the woman, who was only identified as Umm Ahmed. “I really love the Islamic State.”

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/270520212

[Anthea]

Ethnocide against the Yazidis in Afrin

Immediately after the start of the revolution in Western Kurdistan on July 19, 2012, the Yazidi village of Qestel Cindo was attacked by Islamist militias in Afrin

When the Turkish army entered Afrin on January 20, 2018, the village again became the target of attacks. Despite all attacks, Afrin’s Yazidis have organized themselves in all areas of life since the beginning of the Western Kurdistan Revolution and have been part of the democratic self-government.

During Turkey's attack in violation of international law and under the subsequent occupation, there were again countless attacks on the settlements and religious sites of the Yazidis, the democratic structures they had built, and on the Yazidi population as a whole. By settling families of jihadist militiamen from other parts of Syria or from abroad, the Turkish state is changing the demographics of the region. Mosques and settlements for jihadists and their families are springing up in Yazidi villages.

In 2018, the number of Yazidis in Afrin was still about 25,000, but today only 2,000 members of this community live in the region. They are exposed to ethnic persecution and religiously motivated violence by the militias supported by the Turkish state.

The violence of the Islamists forced many to flee

After the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic was repeatedly involved in massacres of Yazidi Kurds. The ethnic cleansing during the occupation of Afrin, which had already lasted more than three years, was accompanied by a policy of islamizing Yazidis and Alevis in the area.

But Afrin’s Yazidis have not only become a target of the Turkish state since the beginning of the occupation. Right after the revolution began in 2012, Turkey used the militias of the so-called "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) to attack Yazidi villages.

At the beginning of the Syrian civil war, 30,000 to 35,000 Yazidis lived in Afrin and another 5,000 in Aleppo. The war also marked the beginning of the promotion of jihadist groups by Turkey and other states in the region. The Islamists' violence against those of other faiths forced large segments of the Yazidi population to flee to Europe.

One of the first of these acts of violence was the attack by FSA militias from Azaz in northern Aleppo on the Yazidi village of Qestel Cindo in Shera district in October 2012. This was followed by other attacks on the village and other places such as Qitme. The village of Êlî Kino was completely occupied in 2012-2013, and many of the Yazidis living there were abducted.

The attacks on Yazidi villages continued in the following years. The attack by the terrorist militia Islamic State (ISIS) on the Yazidi region of Shengal in northern Iraq and the unceasing threats by Turkish militias in the regions around Afrin prompted more people to flee to Europe.

However, a not insignificant part of the Yazidi population insisted on not leaving their homeland and building their own institutions as part of democratic self-government and preserving the Yazidi identity.

With the beginning of the Turkish invasion in January 2018, a large part of the Yazidi population was forced to flee the cities. The majority of those who initially remained in the cities were also forced to flee during the course of the occupation due to policies characterized by massacres, rape, kidnappings, and Islamization. The Yazidi Association of Afrin, which was forced to move its headquarters to the neighboring Shehba region due to the occupation, estimates the number of Yazidis remaining in Afrin at only about 2,000.

Turkey-backed militias openly threaten genocide

At the beginning of the invasion, the first attack was again directed at the village of Qestel Cindo, which was also the first target of the FSA militias in the first hours of the Western Kurdistan revolution. The militia group "Syrian National Army" (SNA), built by Turkey, threatened the Yazidi population of the villages around Shera and Sherawa, referring to the genocide committed by ISIS in Iraq: "We will do in Afrin what we did in Shengal."

The former chairman of the Yazidi Association of Afrin, Süleyman Cafer, recounts his experiences shortly before the invasion: "About four days before, we were sitting in front of the association's center when a group of women came by. 'We are all carrying poison, if the jihadists come to Afrin, we will take our lives. We will not allow the same thing to happen to us as happened to the women in Shengal,' they said to us.

Turkey and its militias are no different from ISIS. Many of them were IS fighters before. All of the commanders were with the ISIS. Just as the ISIS attacked the Yazidi population in Shengal because they were 'infidels', they attacked in Afrin under the slogan 'We will destroy the infidels.'"

Countless holy sites were destroyed

During the all-out attacks and subsequent occupation, countless sacred sites of the Yazidi faith were destroyed. On January 26, 2018, a Turkish airstrike turned the 3,300-year-old temple of Ain Dara into a field of rubble. Before the invasion, there were 19 Yazidi holy sites in the Afrin region. Five of these sites and two cemeteries were looted and completely destroyed. Many other sites were devastated, and the wishing trees typical of the Yazidi faith were cut down.

The destroyed temple complex of Ain Dara

The center of the Association of Yazidis founded in 2013 was mined and blown up by the occupiers in June 2018. In the explosion, the historic statue of Zarathustra kept there was also completely destroyed. Countless books of the Yazidi faith had been gathered in the center. After the destruction, a militia Quranic school was built on the same site.

Syria's largest Yazidi cemetery on Mount Şex Berkêt (Sheikh Barakat) in Dar Taizzah was looted and replaced with a Turkish military base. As part of this reconstruction, all evidence of the Yazidi faith was removed and replaced with Islamic symbols.

The Muslim faith is forced upon the Yazidis

Since the beginning of the occupation, at least 13 Yazidi civilians have been killed and 42 abducted in Afrin. Eleven of the abductees were women. There has been no information on the whereabouts of 35-year-old Afiyet Cuma and 32-year-old Sedika Ibo since they were abducted from the village of Qitme by militiamen in October 2019. 66-year-old Omer Şemo was executed by militia gunfire after refusing to convert to Islam.

On March 21, 2021, the Salafist "Ebadullah Society" ("Friends of Allah") invaded the village of Qibar. The group, consisting of 15 people, including Syrian nationals, stayed in the homes of 23 Yazidi residents for about two weeks with the purpose of forcibly converting them to Islam, according to sources in the village. During Ramadan, houses in various Yazidi villages were visited by militiamen in IS uniforms and the residents were reminded to observe fasting.

In Afrin, rules similar to those introduced by ISIS in its former "capital" Raqqa apply under the occupation. Women are forbidden to leave the house without a black veil. Children are required to attend madrasas, tells the current co-chair of the Yazidi advocacy group, Suat Huso.

Demographics and culture are being changed

Over the course of the occupation, which has lasted more than three years, the Turkish state has settled more than 450,000 people in Afrin from other parts of Syria, as well as from other countries. Many of them are jihadists and their families. Thus, the demographics of the formerly multi-ethnic region have been greatly changed. Jihadists were also settled in Yazidi villages. Traces of Yazidi and Kurdish culture have had to give way to mosques and Koranic schools.

Before the occupation, 90 percent of the residents in Qestel Cindo were Yazidis, while the remaining residents were Muslim Kurds. Of 450 Yazidi families, only 25 families remain in the village today, most of them elderly. Three homes of Yazidi families have since been converted into mosques.

As in all other formerly Yazidi villages, several houses in the village of Shadire have been converted into mosques. Only a handful of Yazidi families still live in the village, where the Turkish state is resettling people from the Islamist stronghold of Idlib. Next to Shadire, a settlement of 96 houses is being built for relatives of deceased jihadists.

Some villages are under particular pressure

The villages of Baflûnê in Shera) and Basûfane in Sherawa are under particularly strong pressure from the occupiers. Of the 3,500 Yazidi inhabitants of Basûfane, only 200 remain today. The Turkish army established a base in the village and initially settled mercenaries from the "Faylaq-al-Sham" militia.

Recently, members of the al-Qaeda-derived al-Nusra Front have also settled there. According to reports, the Turkish army plans to settle the village entirely with Nusra members and their families due to its proximity to the canton of Shehba, which is still under the Autonomous Administration control.

In October 2020, Faylaq-al-Sham militiamen began building a mosque in Basûfanê. After worldwide protests, construction was halted, but at least three former homes were converted into mosques and the remaining Yazidi children continue to be forced to attend mosques.

A similar situation exists in the village of Baflûnê, whose entire population was forced to flee due to heavy bombardment during the invasion. The village and an adjacent camp of 70 huts are now inhabited by mercenaries from the Furqat al-Hamza, Ahrar al-Sharqiya and Ahrar al-Sham groups. The original residents are refused to return and, again, some of the houses have been converted into mosques.

Today it is the grandchildren of the Ottomans who are driving us out

Suleyman Cafer points out the historical continuity of violence against Yazidis, saying the following: “While the first 72 genocides against the Yazidi community were perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, today it is "the grandchildren of the Ottomans" who are slaughtering and expelling Yazidis.

Not a single historical work that belongs to Kurdish culture has remained in Afrin. All of them were taken to Turkey. Moreover, the holy sites were destroyed. I think Erdoğan will soon bring out books and maps saying: 'Afrin belongs to the Turks, there is nothing Kurdish here.' The situation of the Kurds and Yazidis in Afrin is very bad right now.

Turkey does not want a single Yazidi to remain in Afrin. Because as Abdullah Öcalan said: ‘If there are no more Yazidis, then Kurdish culture will also no longer exist’. The Turkish state has destroyed all the historical and holy places of the Yazidis and mosques are being built in Yazidi villages.

Islamic religious clothing is being imposed on the Yazidi children and women, and all Yazidis are forced to convert to Islam. Humanity must finally raise its voice against this. It must break its silence. Turkey has occupied Afrin and is trying to turn a Kurdish area into a Turkish one. For this it pursues a genocidal policy against Yazidis and Kurds. Everyone must raise their voice against this policy. Turkey must withdraw from Afrin, from Serêkaniyê and from all of Syria."

[Anthea]

How camps have empowered Yazidi women

For some Yazidi women, living in camps has been a chance to empowerment

There has never been a gym, or sports facility of any kind, for girls in Husna’s village in Sinjar, even before ISIS rampaged the area and before the war flattened cities and villages. Husna’s boxing courses are the first-ever sports event for women in her town.

In the past few months, Iraq has pushed to return the displaced Yazidi population home in the northwest of Iraq. As the Yezidis go back to Sinjar to rebuild their lives from scratch, the 21-year-old Husna opens her own little gym there. With a sack of boxing gloves and gears, she upgrades an empty room into a sports hall for the boxing sessions.

Husna belongs to Iraq’s 1.5 million displaced population; civilians who were forced to flee in face of the ISIS invasion in 2014 and the anti-ISIS bombardment and raids that came after. "All I remember is that one morning we had to leave everything behind, hop in the car and escape to the mountains. ISIS was getting close to Sinjar. If we had stayed, we would have got killed, just like the others," she says. The Yazidi population was a particular target of ISIS aggression. Many of them experienced unimaginable horror while escaping and witnessed their family members getting killed or kidnapped.

Since 2014, displaced Yezidis have been marooned in camps accross Iraqi Kurdistan. The camps, each hosting tens of thousands of displaced people, are usually located kilometers away from the nearest cities and in practice, are isolated from the rest of the country. Families had to live in small container houses for years.

This did not stop some of the refugee women from improving their lives. The IDP camps of the northwest of Iraq, which operate under the Kurdish regional government, are full of success stories of women who built on the bare minimum and left the camps better off than when they arrived.

Husna was one of them. She learned how to box while living in an IDP camp called Rwanga, for seven years -- most of her teenagerhood.

Boxing sisters of Rwanga camp

In 2018 Husna signed up for a project called Boxing Sisters. An NGO called Lotus flower had initiated it and the purpose was to improve the mental and physical health of refugee women.

"I went to the first session and immediately fell in love with the sport," says Husna.

All the trainers, including Cathy Brown, the British boxer who visited the camp, agreed she had talent.

Now Husna has become a quite well-known boxing trainer herself. Not only her neighbors and friends in Rwanga camp but also women in the other camps, who take part in her courses, know her. Lotus Flowers supports Husna to regularly visit other IDP camps and train more women and girls, even now that she has moved back to Sinjar. Husna says that boxing has given her a sense of purpose. "If it wasn't for boxing courses, I wouldn't know what to do going back to Sinjar. There is nothing there for me, no jobs or no universities I could afford," she says.

Rwanga camp Success stories

In Rwanga camp, boxing courses were not the only empowerment program on which women could rely.

NGOs like Lotus flowers offered a pallet of educational activities, aimed at educating women and supporting them to gain independence. "They were all successful programs because women welcomed and valued them and enthusiastically took part in them," says Vian Ahmad, the regional manager of Lotus flower.

Thanks to the occupational training offered in the camps, dozens of women have learned how to start their own small businesses. Leyla, a 37 Yazidi woman, learned how to sew through Lotus flower courses. She has now opened her own little tailors' shop, after returning to her hometown.

"It is ironic, but living in a camp provided opportunities for women that they would never have access to, back in their villages."

Even before the ISIS siege, Iraq’s infrastructure was strained due to years of war and instability. In rural areas, most women did not have the chance to go to school or learn an occupation independent from their families. "Our literary courses in the camps have always been overbooked." Says Ahmad. "Now more than a hundred women have learned how to read and write."

One of the women, who never miss a single session of literacy classes, is Nine. Lotus flowers helped her to open a small grocery shop in Essyan camp. With the income, Nine can sustain her family and take care of her disabled husband.

Sisterhood in IDP camps

The educational opportunities that social workers provided for displaced women across Iraqi Kurdistan go beyond occupational training. Lotus flowers organized sessions in which women could learn more about their bodies, contraceptive methods, and how to take care of themselves. Other regular workshops maintained a sustained focus on gender equality in parenthood. There have been many noticeable changes, Vian Ahmad has noted, "far beyond what we all expected."

Reporting domestic violence used to be a taboo in the camp. After the second and third years of working in the camps, Ahmad says she was positively surprised to see even older women reporting it. "As women found a supportive community outside of their families, their fears started to vanish. This did not exist in their lives before," says Ahmad.

Ahmad doesn't know if these changes are going to persist when all the displaced women go back to their towns and villages. Many of them are reluctant to leave, she has noted, because they will lose the safe space they had here.

That was at least the case with Husna. "I arrived in the camp with a grip that lasted for several weeks. I didn’t know how we were going to manage; I hated it here and wanted to go back home," the young girl says. "But leaving my friends, … It felt just like the day I arrived."

https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/32 ... zidi-women

[Anthea]

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Art as trauma therapy

How Yazidis have immortalised the genocide of 2014

After the existential peril of the 2014 Yazidi genocide, some within the community have turned to art to document their trauma, as well as creatively express their aesthetic political resistance and continued endurance for the generations to come

The Yazidi people have faced more tragedies than any community should ever have to. Throughout history, the ethno-religious minority, whose homeland is on the fertile Nineweh plains of north-western Iraq, have been victims of 74 genocides.

I witnessed the most recent of them. In 2014, the so-called Islamic State group (ISIS) captured Yazidi-majority towns and villages across north-western Iraq, because they believe Yazidis to be devil-worshippers, and thus aimed to wipe the community out. They killed thousands of Yazidis, most of them men, and dumped the bodies in mass and individual graves. They also enslaved thousands of other women and children.

There is almost no surviving evidence or records documenting the traumas of the 73 genocides they suffered before ISIS’ acts of violence... But post-2014, Yazidis have been using painting as a tool to immortalise the genocide

According to the Survivors office, around 85 percent of the Yazidis’ homes in places such as the centre of Sinjar and the affiliated villages and complexes were destroyed, as well as 68 shrines and temples. Thousands of people are still missing and in captivity. According to IOM statistics, about 350,000 people ended up living in 16 IDP camps in Kurdistan/Northern Iraq, where the close to 200,000 people have remained for almost seven years.

In March this year, the Iraqi government recognised the campaign of killing and enslavement as genocide, and passed legislation that allows survivors to seek compensation.

The year 2014 was a turning point for us in many ways. One of them is how a new generation of artists – and painters in particular – emerged among the Yazidis in the IDP camps of the Kurdistan region, a semi-autonomous area of northern Iraq.

“Yazidis chose painting specifically because it is an individual activity that does not require spending too much money. People only need some simple supplies and materials, and can practice it unlike other artistic activities like acting, which needs a group of people to work on and so consumes money and effort,” said Dikra Ali, one of the participants of a painting training workshop in Sinjar.

Before ISIS’s campaign of persecution in 2014, there were only a few Yazidi artists, as the community did not pay much attention to painting.

Yazidis documenting their suffering through painting has prompted a shift in attitudes towards the art form. They now use painting as a mechanism to describe what they have been through

“The reason that we did not have many painters before 2014 is because people were busy with their work and school,” said Ravo Osman, one of the better-known pre-genocide Yazidi artists.

Those who showed talent for the art form had minimal support from their community. It was held in very low esteem considered an unnecessary habit.

“Art was considered as a luxury, which is practiced when you have reached the level of a luxurious life, but Yazidis did not have that life, so art is regarded as a secondary – or even less than a secondary – thing for them,” said Falah Alrasam, a Yazidi artist from Sinjar who lives in the Bersivi IDP camp in Kurdistan.

But since then, painting has played different roles. It has filled long hours in lives in limbo.

“After 2014, Yezidi youth had nothing to do and had a lot of free time in the IDP camps, so they started to work on their painting skills,” said Osman.

It has also become a way for Yazidis to document the violence that they have endured.

There is almost no surviving evidence or records documenting the traumas of the 73 genocides they suffered before ISIS’ acts of violence. Very little remained to memorialise exactly what happened. But post-2014, Yazidis have been using painting as a tool to immortalise the genocide.

“Throughout history, famous artists have always documented events in paintings, so that until now we have these documents and study them,” said Falah Alrasam.

“Yazidis are doing the same to record this event so that future generations know about it, and also to raise awareness among people about the crimes that IS committed against human rights.”

Before 2014, Yazidi artists, including Falah Alrasam, Ravo Ossman, Amar Salim, and Kamal Hadaqi, painted portraits, and documented representations of the culture such as traditional clothes, customs, and religious and social ceremonies. But because of the lack of support from their community, the number of their paintings was very limited.

Click Image to Enlarge:


Osman, one of the few Yazidi artists whose paintings of the culture have been shown in exhibitions in Iraq and Europe, said that his painting style shifted after IS’ decimation of the community seven years ago.

“Originally, I was focusing more on realistic and expressionist paintings, but after 2014 I changed my painting style and focused on a surrealistic style,” he said. “With this style, one can embody more than one story in a single painting and represent a view of their future as well, and this style was suitable to embody the Yazidi pain as well. I did that specifically in the genocide painting, which tells many stories at once and also has some view of the future.”

Other artists adopt realist forms. Falah Alrasam’s Running After Getting Water shows a young girl running after a water tanker, and is a painting of a photo taken during IS’ sweep across northern Iraq by photographers who were on the mountain. Their invasion forced thousands of people to seek shelter on Sinjar Mountain, which casts its shadow over Yazidi towns and villages. They were left with minimal food and water. The painting shows the desperation and harsh circumstances into which the community had been forced.

Yazidis documenting their suffering through painting has prompted a shift in attitudes towards the art form. They now use painting as a mechanism for describing and documenting what they’ve been through.

“After 2014, whoever was interested in painting or had a talent for it tried to embody the genocide in paintings, to make it visible to the whole world,” said Alrasam.

https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/ ... hrough-art

[Anthea]

Fire destroys hundreds of tents

Hundreds of tents burned down in the Sharia camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Duhok province on Friday when a fire broke out, governor Ali Tatar said

The cause of the blaze is still unclear.

Tatar said in a statement on his Facebook account that 370 tents burned down, adding “184 families out of 994 have lost their belongings and their money.”

Tatar also said the families will be compensated with new tents, food and other needs.

The governor later said both Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and PM Masrour Barzani have spoken by phone with him, “expressing their full readiness to extend a helping hand and support to the affected families and all IDPs.”

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a statement 400 tents burned down, adding that they are working with relevant authorities to respond to the needs of the victims.

“We will continue to work with authorities and the residents of the camp in order to find ways to prevent similar incidents in the future.”

“We were barely able to save our documents,” one of the inhabitants of the tents told Rudaw. “At least three blocks have burned down. This is half of Sharia (camp).”

“A catastrophe has happened,” another resident said.

Some residents complained that firefighters did not arrive soon enough.

Sharia camp is home to displaced Yazidis who fled Shingal after the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked the district.

Shingal Mayor Mahma Khalil, who runs affairs in Shingal from Duhok, visited the camp and said the incident was “a great humanitarian catastrophe.”

Khalil blamed the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and the camp’s administration for the fire, saying they failed to dedicate firefighting vehicles to the camp.

“The fire has been controlled and no one has died,” a civil defense official told Rudaw. “We have not determined the reason behind the fire.”

He added the camp has a firefighting team but the density of the camp prevented them from accessing the tents that had caught fire.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/040620211

[Anthea]

America, Take a Stand for Yazidis
Nadia Murad

Earlier this year, at the burial ceremony for more than 100 Yazidi victims of ISIS' massacre in my hometown of Kocho, Sinjar, Iraq, members of my community asked me to deliver a speech

I was mourning my brothers Masud and Basee and was overwhelmed by memories of the day they were senselessly murdered in 2014—the same day my sisters, nieces and I were taken captive to be sold into sexual slavery. I longed to focus solely on laying my brothers to rest, but I knew why my community asked me to speak.

Unlike international advocacy forums, my friends and neighbors in Kocho did not want me to repeat and relive my experience in ISIS captivity. My story is not exceptional in the Yazidi community. We are a small ethno-religious minority indigenous to northern Iraq that has historically been relegated to the margins of Iraqi society. ISIS exploited this vulnerability in an attempt to eradicate the Yazidi faith, along with other ethnic and religious minorities.

As a result of ISIS' genocide, everyone in my community lost homes, relatives and freedoms. In fact, I am considered relatively fortunate to have been able to bury my brothers. Thousands of families have loved ones who are still missing in captivity or remain unexhumed in mass graves. They may never receive the closure of an honorable burial.

On the day of the ceremony, my community needed to hear that Yazidis will receive justice. They needed to know that the countless other mass graves throughout Sinjar will be exhumed before it is too late, the 2,800 women and children missing in captivity will be rescued and ISIS criminals will be tried in courts of law.

I addressed the crowd of mourners and spoke about continuing the fight for justice. However, I was acutely aware that it was not me who needed to deliver this promise for justice. The Yazidi community needs a commitment from national and international authorities who have the power to act—the same entities that laud human rights principles yet shy away from action when called upon to defend them.

In May, I took my community's plea for justice to the United Nations Security Council where the Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/ISIL (UNITAD) presented "clear and convincing evidence that the crimes against the Yazidi people clearly constituted genocide."

I advocated back in 2017 with my friend and lawyer Amal Clooney for the creation of UNITAD, which has succeeded in collecting first-hand testimonies, forensic evidence and ISIS records. But as Clooney said to U.N. member states, "the investigation was always meant to be the beginning and not the end."

With evidence documented according to international standards, all that is left to find is the political will to prosecute. I fear that Yazidis will only receive empty promises. Survivors have risked shame and stigma to share their experiences of sexual violence in the hopes that authorities will hold their abusers accountable. Survivors like me relive our trauma not simply for personal justice but because we believe that accountability will prevent militants from continuing to use sexual violence as a weapon of war. Despite countless U.N. hearings, the international community has neglected to establish a clear plan for legal proceedings.

Justice is more than an abstract legal principle. It tangibly affects our everyday lives. The approaching anniversary of the Yazidi genocide on August 3 will mark the seventh year since ISIS systematically attacked the Yazidi community in Iraq. To be perfectly clear, this is the seventh year since the genocide began. It will not end until all Yazidis are able to live in a safe and dignified environment.

Yazidi lives were destroyed in 2014 because the governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan region, along with the international community, neglected their responsibility to protect the vulnerable. ISIS' intention to commit genocide against Yazidis could not have been clearer. My community's cries for help could not have been more urgent. Despite this, no one came to our aid.

Every year, on the genocide's anniversary, Yazidis feel this abandonment anew. Every new day a Yazidi woman endures sexual slavery, a child is unable return to school, and a family cannot earn an income, we are reminded of what was taken from us and what little has been done to restore it.

Almost seven years later, my community is still left in limbo without the resources to rebuild their homes, hospitals, farms and schools in Sinjar. Unlike many other displaced populations around the world, Yazidis have a feasible opportunity to return home and rebuild. This requires investment in Sinjar's basic services and infrastructure, improvement of the region's security and local governance and the inclusion of survivors at every step along the way.

We deserve nothing less

Condemning ISIS perpetrators for crimes of genocide and sexual violence with the full force of the law is crucial to my community's ability to heal, rebuild and safeguard against further persecution. Violence is repeated when impunity is accepted. Yazidis have endured cycles of marginalization, persecution and violence for centuries. The perpetrators always walk free. To break this cycle, courts must send the message that violating our rights is unacceptable.

Legislation establishing special courts for prosecuting ISIS has recently been introduced in both the Iraqi national and Kurdistan regional governments. For these courts to meaningfully contribute to justice and reconciliation, perpetrators must be tried for genocide and sexual violence, which address the gravity of their crimes more appropriately than counts of terrorism.

The Yazidi community's faith in the legal process hinges on the inclusion of survivors and oversight from international judges. Without multilateral pressure, this new legislation is likely to gather dust amid the pile of agreements meant to improve Sinjar's security and governance but never truly implemented.

The new Biden administration has the opportunity to lead the decisive next steps on the path to justice. If the U.S. wants to stabilize the region and sustainably assist the communities it promised to protect, it will employ its unique diplomatic power to resolve the political discord impeding justice and reconciliation. If the administration wants to show true global leadership on human rights, it will support prosecutions of genocide and sexual violence at national and international levels. If Americans want to protect religious freedom globally, they will take a stand for Yazidis.

Nadia Murad is Yazidi human rights activist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who advocates for survivors of sexual violence and genocide. She is a UNODC Goodwill Ambassador and founder of Nadia's Initiative.

https://www.newsweek.com/america-take-s ... on-1597261

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Calls for return of displaced Yazidis

Following the fire in the Sheriya refugee camp near Duhok, the Shengal Autonomous Council is calling for the return of Yazidis displaced by ISIS in 2014 to their homeland. The fire has left around a thousand people homeless

The Shengal Autonomous Council called on the Yazidis living in camps since the ISIS genocide to return. In a statement on the fire that broke out yesterday in the Sheriya refugee camp near Duhok, the Autonomous Council said: "The people of Shengal do not belong in camps or in other countries. Their place and home is Shengal. It is time to return to Shengal for a dignified and free life."

Regarding the fire, the Council said that 400 tents were completely burned. Six people were slightly injured, about 1000 people from 184 families have been left homeless. "We wish the injured a speedy recovery and want them to know that we are by their side with all means at our disposal."

According to the Autonomous Council, about 12,000 Yazidis who fled ISIS in 2014 are still living in 17 different camps. The statement pointed to the poor living conditions in the camps and the high suicide rate, saying,

"The responsibility for solving these problems lies with the respective government of the area where the camp is located. Thousands of Yazidis are currently living in camps controlled by the KDP. The KDP is not fulfilling its responsibility. It should allow these people to return to Shengal. On the contrary, it is making efforts to keep them in camps."

The Shengal Council also called on the UN to take the initiative. Shengal is now free, it said, so there is no point in continuing to lock up the fled people in camps. Fleeing abroad is also not a solution. Instead, the refugees must be allowed to return home, it added.

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Financial compensation

Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement has said that families affected by Friday’s fire at Duhok’s Sharia IDP camp will be compensated up to one million Iraqi dinars ($685)

“The compensation amount ranges from 500,000 dinars ($342) to one million dinars for each family, in addition to distributing mattresses, blankets and clothes for those affected,” ministry spokesperson Ali Abbas Jahangi told Iraqi state media on Saturday.

The compensation will be distributed “in the next few days,” he added.

Sharia camp is home to displaced Yazidis – an ethnoreligious minority who fled their hometown Shingal after they were targeted with particular brutality by the Islamic State group (ISIS), when the jihadists took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

A fire, said to be caused by an electrical problem, ripped through the camp on Friday, burning nearly 400 tents. Almost 1,000 people from more than 130 families were affected by the fire, Karwan Zaki Atroshi, coordinator for camps in Duhok, told Rudaw English on Saturday, adding that the damages are still being assessed.

Iraq’s Minister of Migration and Displacement Evan Jabro told Rudaw on Friday that she had contacted Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi for compensation and aid for the affected families.

She added that the ministry “cannot pressure the displaced to return to their homes if there are no services provided there. Where should people return back to if their houses are destroyed and there isn’t a place they can reside in?”

The ministry has previously been critcised for closing almost all camps across federal Iraq, prompting concern from human rights groups.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/050620212

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Red Crescent delivers aid

A Turkish state-run charity on Saturday extended a helping hand to a fire-damaged Yazidi camp in northern Iraq

The country head of the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) in Iraq, Yunus Yazıcı, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the group had contacted the governor's office in the northern Dohuk province, as well as the Irbil office of the Iraqi Red Crescent to help internally displaced Yazidi residents of the Sharya Camp, where a fire broke out on Friday.

Two truckloads of aid, including 400 beds, 475 blankets, 250 kitchen sets and 250 parcels of clothes, were distributed to people affected by the fire at the camp.

Yazıcı stressed that following the disaster, the Turkish Red Crescent was the first organization to deliver aid to the camp.

Around 130 tents were damaged in Friday's fire.

The Yezidis, the followers of an ancient faith, were the target of atrocities perpetrated by Daesh terrorists, who overran swathes of Iraq in 2014.

https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/tur ... -camp/news

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Another mass grave in Shengal

The remains of 11 Yazidis killed during the ISIS genocide against the Yazidi people in 2014 have been found in a mass grave in Shengal, southern Kurdistan

The Nineveh Forensic Medicine Institute has reported that a mass grave containing the bodies of 11 Yazidi people had been discovered in the Shengal region.

It is reported that the remains belong to Yazidis who were killed during the genocide of Yazidis by ISIS in Shengal in August 2014.

At least 85 mass graves of Yazidis have been found in Shengal and its surrounding areas so far.

The fate of the thousands of missing people is still unknown. ISIS kidnapped thousands of women and girls and sold them as sex slaves. It brutally murdered numerous women and girls

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Threatens to Yazidi identity

How genocide and displacement threatens Yazidi cultural identity

Historic conflicts and genocidal attempts have fractured an already weakened Yazidi resolve. Now, with the community disparately spread across borders, community leaders fear losing the very heart of Yazidi cultural identity.

For seven years now, the Islamic State (ISIS) group's forced displacement of the Yazidis has severely impacted the community's religious and cultural identity, with people from the religious minority now dispersed across the world.

The Yazidis are a minority sect, living mostly in Sinjar northeast Iraq. They have experienced repeated genocide campaigns throughout their history of 5,000-7,000 years. Prior to IS attacks, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), their population stood at 550,000 in Iraq, but hundreds migrated abroad and were displaced in different spots in Kurdistan and the Sinjar mountain.

According to the office of the Rescued Yazidi Abductees, 360,000 Yezidi have been displaced to Kurdistan and Sinjar mountains, with a further 120,000 migrating to Europe, with countries such as Germany, France, Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Australia being the main destinations. Furthermore, according to IOM's latest statistics, 200,000 remain displaced in 16 different IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) regions in Kurdistan/Northern Iraq, mostly in the Dohuk governorate.

While their forced displacement has provided a unique opportunity for Yazidis to interact with new cultures and communities, it has also brought severely negative effects that have significantly threatened the Yazidi identity inside and outside of Iraq. This is a result of living with their host communities, adjusting to their cultural and social habits and practices.

“As Yazidi children, we grew up in a different environments and were exposed to different cultures [in displacement], we've forgotten about our geography, particularly Sinjar. We now only hear about Sinjar in negative ways – IS attacks, kidnapping, genocide, killing. All these things give them [the children] a negative view on their homeland and consequently, they forget about their identity," said Zozan Hassan, a displaced Yazidi in Kurdistan.

"As a result of so many years of displacement, Yazidi children have started to forget their Kurmanji language and mix it with other languages, and this has had a huge impact on their identity."

The minority group do not have textbooks and archival records in their language, with many now not knowing how to read and write in Kurmanji.

The Yazidi religious identity is also facing the risks of elimination after displacement; according to the office of Rescued Yazidi Abductees, 68 temples and shrines were demolished in Sinjar by the extremist group in 2014.

“As a result of that destruction, we have started to neglect religious rituals and practices, while many of us also forgetting about these practices since they are no longer living in Sinjar,” Said Ronny Saeed, a Yazidi woman displaced in Kurdistan.

The displacement, however, has also brought about some positive changes in the community, such as new interactions with other communities and allowing them to open up, adapt, and communicate with new cultures.

A Yazidi man from Sinjar, who preferred not to disclose his name said, “Living in a new environment gave an opportunity to the Yazidis to realise and recognise their rights as a minority. They have started to raise their voices and ask for their rights like any other Iraqi citizen who has been marginalised and silenced for so many decades due to their religious beliefs.”

Ghazala Jango is a Yazidi researcher from Sinjar in north-eastern Iraq, currently completing her journalism degree at the American University of Sulaimani.

https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/ ... i-identity

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Reparations law a positive step

When I first spoke with Sahir last year, he was living in a camp for displaced people in northern Iraq

He told me how, at just 15 years old, he was abducted by ISIS from his family in Iraq. After enduring months of military training and countless hours of propaganda, ISIS forced him to fight in Syria, where he suffered extensive injuries. He was sent to a hospital to recover, and from there he finally managed to escape ISIS.

But nearly three years after returning to Iraq, he is still feeling despondent. Like so many of the estimated 2,000 Yezidi child survivors of ISIS captivity, whose situation Amnesty International documented last year, he had not received any assistance since his return.

“What I was looking for is just someone to care about me, some support,” he said. “Someone to put their hands on my shoulders and say everything will be OK.”

When I spoke with him again recently, he told me he is still stuck in the camp: still waiting, still struggling, and still receiving no support.

Yet the potential for change looms on the horizon for survivors like Sahir.

On March 1, 2021, the Iraqi parliament passed the Yazidi Survivors Law, which provides a reparations framework for survivors of ISIS crimes. Those eligible include, among others, women and girls who were subjected to sexual violence, as well as child survivors who were abducted before the age of 18.

Although the law is targeted at the Yezidi community, it includes in its scope survivors from the Christian, Turkmen, and Shabak minority groups as well. The law provides for, among other assistance, a monthly salary, a plot of land or housing unit, support to re-enter school, and access to psychosocial and other health services.

Regrettably, the Survivors Law has a significant omission: it fails to address the needs of children born as a result of sexual violence by ISIS members, or the needs of their mothers. Although some Yezidi women chose to separate from children born of sexual violence, we found that many others have been forcibly separated – and are desperate to be reunited.

The Iraqi authorities must address the plight of these women and children by specifically including children born of sexual violence in reparations and taking all necessary actions to ensure these women and children can live together in safety.

However, the passage of the Survivors Law is still a remarkable achievement. With its holistic and comprehensive package of reparation measures, it has the potential to become the gold standard for future reparation schemes, setting an example for other governments in how to honour their obligations to survivors.

To achieve that, though, the law must be transformed from words into reality.

In recent weeks, Amnesty International consulted with civil society actors in Iraq, including SEED Foundation, Yazda, Free Yezidi Foundation, and the Coalition for Just Reparations (C4JR), an alliance of 31 Iraqi non-governmental organisations. It was the tireless advocacy of these organisations and other civil society actors and survivors that led to the passage of the law.

If the law is to reach its potential, the Council of Ministers tasked with drafting its implementing regulations should heed these groups’ advice. While their recommendations are extensive and detailed, three are particularly crucial.

First, the implementation of the law must be “survivor-centred”. All those supporting the delivery of services must respect survivors’ confidentiality and privacy, fully inform them of their rights, seek their informed consent, and encourage them to provide feedback on the process.

Second, the application process to receive support from the government must avoid re-traumatising survivors. Eligibility for assistance and support should not rely on any further invasive methods of investigation, or require mandatory disclosure of sexual violence and other crimes. Where possible, survivors’ testimonies should be corroborated by the extensive documentation that has already been gathered in Iraq.

Finally, the application must be accessible to all eligible survivors. They should have the option to submit their applications in person, online, or with the assistance of a third party or organisation. As the Iraqi mission of the International Organization for Migration recently argued, the many survivors based outside Iraq should also have access and be encouraged to apply for reparations under the law.

According to Sahir, the way in which the Survivors Law is implemented – and indeed whether it is implemented at all – represents something of a final test in the eyes of the Yezidi community.

“It is difficult for Yezidis to trust the government again,” he explained. “Until now, they have not done anything for our people. They came with this law now, but we do not know if they will follow through. Now, it is their chance.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021 ... itive-step

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Turkish drone attack in Shengal

A civilian vehicle on the Serdeşt plateau in the Shengal mountains has been bombed by an unmanned Turkish drone

Another drone attack has taken place in the Yazidi settlement area of Shengal in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). According to available information, a civilian vehicle in the vicinity of the Şehîd Nazê camp on the Serdeşt plateau in the Shengal mountains was bombed by an unmanned Turkish drone. There were no fatalities or injuries, and the vehicle sustained only minor property damage. Reconnaissance flights continue to take place over the region.

The Serdeşt camp has been attacked by the Turkish air force before. The plateau was a refuge for hundreds of thousands of people when the "Islamic State" carried out genocide and femicide in Shengal in August 2014. Serdeşt was initially defended by only eight PKK fighters.

The Turkish state has targeted Shengal with armed UAVs several times in the past. In January 2020, one such attack killed four YBŞ fighters, including Zerdeşt Şengalî, the commander of Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) at the time. Yazidi politician Zekî Şengalî, a member of the Shengal Yezidi Coordination and the KCK Executive Council, was killed by a Turkish drone on August 15, 2018. The attack on the Yazidi Kurd's vehicle occurred on his way back from a commemoration ceremony in the village of Kocho. The village had been almost completely wiped out by ISIS on August 15, 2014.

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Belgian Parliament recognizes Yazidi Genocide

The Foreign Relations Committee of the Belgian Parliament unanimously adopted a bill to recognize the Yazidi Genocide

The bill adopted by the Belgian Parliament “condemns and recognizes” the genocide committed against Yazidis by ISIS in Iraq and Syria starting in 2014.

The Belgian lawmakers also asked the government to “use all domestic and international legal means so that the crime of genocide committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria does not go unpunished.”

The lawmakers demanded the government to “encourage and support the Belgian justice system to identify and prosecute possible Belgian perpetrators of crimes against the Yazidi community”.

RETURN AND RECONSTRUCTION

The bill called for Belgium to facilitate the return of Yazidis to their lands and reconstruction activities.

The bill was introduced by the Christian democratic Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH). Koen Metsu from the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and seven other parties forming the coalition government endorsed the bill.

‘THIS CONCERNS ALL HUMANITY’

“The evidence was there. They were numerous and important. Starting from the summer of 2014, there was no doubt that the Islamic State (ISIS) was planning this genocide. Mass graves were discovered, forced conversions were revealed (...) It is a crime that concerns all of us as human beings,” Georges Dallemagne from the cdH party said.

Goerges Dallemagne and Koen Metsu had visited northern and eastern Syria at the end of last year.

CRIME LIST

The bill included a list of violations the Yazidis faced: “pogroms, systematic murder of men, sexual slavery of virgin women sold to commanders and soldiers, hostages who were later returned to their families in exchange for heavy ransoms, burial of women, men and children alive, drugging children, forced Islamization and enlisting.”