Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

From Mount Sinjar to France

During 2019, dozens of Yazidi women and their children arrived in France in small groups to start a new life in safety

In their home country of Iraq or Syria, the Yazidis were the prey of the Islamic State group and suffered massacres, kidnappings, rapes and sexual slavery. How to overcome such trauma? How to start again in a foreign country with an unfamiliar culture and language? FRANCE 24 followed the first steps in France of these women and children who have been to hell and back.

In the course of 2019, some 500 Yazidis, comprised of around 100 women and their children, were welcomed in France as part of a special programme set up by the Élysée presidential palace. Thanks to the activism of Nadia Murad, a former sex slave of the Islamic State (IS) group and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, these women and children were installed in all four corners of France in a bid to help them rebuild their lives.

For eight months, our reporters followed several of these women – Soma, Gulan and Mina – as they began rebuilding their lives in eastern France. Originally from Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, they have survived the horrors of the IS group and are widowed after losing their husbands. Some of them have also lost their fathers or brothers in horrendous circumstances, while some of their relatives are still sex slaves of the Islamists in Iraq or Syria. Sometimes they have no news from these loved ones.

Like the other Yazidi survivors, Soma, Gulan and Mina are illiterate and come from rural families. Now installed in the east of France, they are supported by a team from the NGO Habitat et Humanisme (Habitat and Humanism) who help them with administrative procedures and with questions about the new culture they are discovering.

For security reasons, we were not able to film these women's faces or their children. We have also changed their names.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east ... zidi-women

[Anthea]

This is home as left by ISIS and the coalition



Many of my people returning to their homes in Shingal

I visited my home after 6 years.

This is what ISIS left us.

How do we rebuild what they have destroyed?

There is no work here.

We have been left with nothing.

What will happen to our wives and children?

We have been forgotten.

With thanks to the coalition for their help in rebuilding our homes after their part in the destruction

[Anthea]

[Anthea]

Nadia Murad's vow to take ISIS to court
and her heartbreaking return home

She wore a scarf in our first interview because she did not want you to know her. She was a humble 21-year-old from a poor farm family. Her dream was to own a hair salon in her village of nearly 2,000, but that was before the massacre

She didn't want to be on 60 Minutes, but she needed the world to know what ISIS did: the murder, the rape, the genocide of her people. Nearly six years ago, in Iraq, we discovered this hesitant, frightened, woman. We did not imagine that her scarf concealed not only her identity, but also a fierce invincibility which would lead her, four years after our interview, to the highest honor the world has to give.


Nadia Murad speaking with "60 Minutes" in 2015

We found her here, among refugees who survived the invasion of the ISIS terrorist army. Her people are Yazidis, a minority in northern Iraq that is poor, persecuted and bound by faith to its revered Mount Sinjar. In 2014, ISIS invaded. Two months later, we came to report on the atrocities of the self-described Islamic State.

Scott Pelley in 2015: Of course, no country on earth recognizes that state, but if it had a border, this would be it.

Beyond that border, was the Yazidi homeland where the faithful practice a religion that predates Islam by 3,000 years. In ISIS's perversion of the Muslim faith, the Yazidis were non-believers condemned to slavery and death.

Nadia Murad (Translation): On Friday, August 15th at 11:30am, they entered our village and told us all to come to the school. There the women and kids were put upstairs and the men downstairs.

Scott Pelley: What happened to you at that point?

Nadia Murad (Translation): As we were entering the school, I was with one of my brothers. There, we saw a bulldozer and I asked my brother "Why is there a bulldozer here?" He replied, "To throw dirt on the bodies when they're done killing."

Her brother was right. The Yazidis, about half a million, were defenseless civilians. Thousands of men, and elder women, were executed. Boys, age seven and older, were forced into the ISIS army.

Scott Pelley: What happened next?

Nadia Murad (Translation): They started loading up 150 girls in four dump trucks.

More than 3,000 women and girls, as young as nine, were trucked into slavery. She says she was sold and raped, sold and raped again, and then gang raped after a failed escape.

Scott Pelley: What about the other members of your family?

Nadia Murad (Translation): I have no idea where my brothers are, I want them all to return but most of all I just want my mother! Tell them, "I just want my mother!"

She seemed broken. But, as our interview went on, her confidence grew as though she came to realize she wasn't speaking for herself, she was speaking for her people. Months later, she settled in Germany, joined a human rights group, and campaigned for justice. In 2018, the world learned her name because Nadia Murad was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nadia Murad today


Nadia Murad today

The 2018 peace prize was meant to expose atrocities women suffer in war. The honor was shared with Denis Mukwege whose hospital treats the sexually assaulted in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Scott Pelley: I'm curious why you chose to speak with us five years ago?

Nadia Murad (Translation): At the beginning, rape was a big shame for me and for others to speak about. Because it would have remained a shame on you, on your family and on your people. The biggest incentive that made me talk was those left behind, including my mother and sisters. I knew what was happening to those in the captivity of ISIS.

Nadia Murad was captive nine days when the last man who bought her left a door unlocked. Kindhearted strangers smuggled her across the Islamic State line. She became a U.N. human rights ambassador, began learning English, wrote a memoir, and vowed to see ISIS in court. But, for that, she needed a lawyer.

Amal Clooney and Nadia Murad


Amal Clooney and Nadia Murad

Amal Clooney: I met Nadia after a colleague called me and said, "I have a new case for you." And I said, "No thanks. I'm busy." And he said, "There's just an extraordinary young woman I want you to meet. Give me an hour."

It didn't take an hour for leading human rights attorney, Amal Clooney, to take the case.

Amal Clooney: I saw it as a test of the international system. It was so egregious because it involved ISIS, it involved a clear case of genocide. It involved sexual slavery to-- at a scale that we haven't seen in modern times and I thought if the U.N. can't act in this case then what does the international rule of law even mean?

By 2015, not one free Yazidi remained in their homeland. This wasn't just war. By international law, the executions, rape, and kidnapping were war crimes.

Amal Clooney: This was the same dilemma that the world had after the atrocities of Nazi Germany. And it's the U.S., under President Truman and President Roosevelt that said, "No, we have to have trials, because there must be a judicial record of the atrocities committed by the Nazis." Because today, you do have people denying that there were gas chambers and-- and what do you have to point to? You can go back and say, "Well, there are 4,000 documents that were submitted as exhibits in the Nuremburg Trials." And the Yazidis deserve nothing less than that.

And there might be similar stacks of evidence of the crimes against the Yazidis, but Clooney feared securing it was a race against time.

Amal Clooney: You had mass graves that weren't secured, where the Yazidis knew their relatives were buried and nobody was exhuming them. And also, I noticed that witnesses were becoming more and more reluctant to speak out as time went by. So, you know, there was only so much we could do as a small team of lawyers. And we said, "This is the responsibility of the U.N. and it's the responsibility of the most powerful body within the U.N., which is the Security Council."

Scott Pelley: Had you ever heard of the U.N. Security Council?

Nadia Murad: Never.

In 2015, just a year after we met her, Nadia Murad asked the security council to hold ISIS accountable.

Nadia Murad (Translation): I've seen what they've done to boys and girls, all those who commit the crime of trafficking and genocide need to be brought to justice."

The security council voted to approve a first step. In 2017, it created an investigative team to collect evidence of ISIS's crimes in Iraq. The team began exhuming some of the 202 mass graves that are known. Now, the question is, whether the evidence will ever be heard. Iraqi courts are convicting thousands of ISIS suspects of terrorism. But none has been tried for the crime of genocide against the Yazidis.

Small pockets of ISIS fighters remain in Syria and Iraq. But U.S. And Iraqi troops have shattered ISIS as a cohesive military force.

Scott Pelley: Is that justice?

Amal Clooney: Absolutely not. You know, if you speak to Yazidi witnesses, victims, survivors, they will say, "It doesn't help me if somebody's killed in a drone strike." In terms of justice, that means something very different. That means being able to be in a courtroom and look their abusers in the eye and tell the world what happened. What ISIS did to them. And that hasn't happened yet.

It has happened before in other atrocities. Last year, a U.N.-backed court in Cambodia convicted two former officials of genocide, 40 years after the Khmer Rouge murdered 1.7 million. Beginning in the 1990's, U.N. war crime trials were held for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. But Iraq is not a member of the international criminal court and has not agreed to war crime trials of its own.

Amal Clooney: What we would like to see is an openness by the Iraqis to actually have international judges be involved in these trials. Potentially international prosecutors. There are different ways of designing it. You know, the Iraqi government could enter into a treaty with the U.N. or there could be an international court and the Iraqis could agree to transfer those responsible for international crimes to that court.

Nadia Murad returns to her home


Nadia Murad returns to her home

Today, peace, if not justice, has settled into the folds of Mount Sinjar. Four days after accepting the Nobel, Nadia Murad returned with the Yazidi man she would soon marry and two replicas of her peace prize.

This is what the absence of justice looks like. The demands of the desperate focused on a woman, abducted at 21, and now returning bearing the weight of a seven-ounce medal.

Nadia Murad (Translation): The morning that I won the Nobel Prize, I asked my husband, Abid, to see if there was a way I could decline because the prize would make my life difficult. But, fate and God sometimes bring you something so that you can stop crimes and help others.

Scott Pelley: Has the Nobel Prize changed your hopes for the future?

Nadia Murad (Translation): Now people look at me like I can rebuild Sinjar, that I can bring more help for the victims and that I can take care of the orphans. But, without support, this is not going to happen by just having a Nobel.

In her village, she said, "I have left a Nobel Prize at the Iraqi parliament. I hope Iraq, after 4,000 years, will recognize Yazidis. We have always been second class citizens." Later, she walked to a site that held the answer to the desperate question she asked in our first interview. The long, green depression in the earth was a mass grave. Her mother's grave.

She said, "Dear mother, my poor mother."

Scott Pelley: You left a replica of your Nobel Peace Prize at your mother's grave.

Nadia Murad: Yeah.

Scott Pelley: What do you think she would have thought of that?

Nadia Murad (Translation): I wonder if she knows that I have talked to the world about her silent death, the killing of her six sons and her two nieces. I often feel that what I have been doing is because of her. I wish that she would know about it she may be happy because the world now knows what ISIS has done.

This is the school where Nadia Murad was separated from her family. Five years later, the murdered and missing are present, but unaccounted for.

Scott Pelley: Altogether, Nadia, how many members of your family were murdered?

Nadia Murad (Translation): We were 48 brothers, mothers, sisters, nephews and nieces in our family. Nine were killed and three are missing. The rest, who were rescued, now live in refugee camps.

There isn't much for refugees to return to. Yazidi homes were wrecked or looted of everything but memories.

Today, Nadia Murad is navigating without a chart, steering by the constellation of her people's dreams. An accidental leader facing questions she cannot answer. Will they have homes? Will there be justice? It's estimated as many as 5,000 Yazidis were murdered, 6,000 abducted. Nearly 4,000 are missing still. With no international trials scheduled for these crimes, evidence from mass graves is being entombed in Baghdad where it will wait until the world that hears her voice, shares her courage.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nobel-peac ... 020-07-19/

[Anthea]

Washington must stand against
Turkish atrocities in Syria

The United States and the international community must take action against Turkey’s violation of religious freedoms targeting Yazidis, Christians and Kurds in Syria, said Anurima Bhargava and Nadine Maenza of the U.S Commission on International Religious Freedom

Yazidis and other vulnerable minorities in the war-torn country are faced with violence against civilians at the hands of the Turkish military and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), following their invasion and occupation of large swath of northern Syria in 2018, the pair wrote in Newsweek Magazine on Saturday.

Turkish-backed Syrian rebel proxies are accused of grave violations against Syria’s minorities following their capture of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in 2018.

The Yazidis, members of a religious community that has inhabited the region since pre-Islamic times, were slaughtered and enslaved in a genocide carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS) starting in 2014

The group’s current fate at the hands of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army ‘s (TFSA), which earlier this year razed their Sheikh Ali shrine to the ground, brings about flashbacks of recent history, the pair wrote.

Human rights organizations, the United Nations and civilians on the ground have documented the abuses and traumatisation of the Yazidi, Christian and Kurdish minorities, the article said, with reports of TFSA allies killing, raping and kidnapping members of the group.

"Since the incursion began, Turkey and the factions it supports have indiscriminately shelled civilian areas, carried out at least seven summary killings, unlawfully occupied private civilian homes and shops and looted the owners' property, and have not accounted for aid workers who may have been forcibly disappeared while working in their zones," the article quoted Sara Kayyali of Human Rights Watch as saying.

Washington must clearly recognise and reflect on the effects of Turkey’s cross-border operations, the pair wrote, which are aimed at Kurdish forces but pose a clear and present danger to religious freedom in northeast Syria.

The United States should pressure Ankara on a timeline for its withdrawal from the country, they said, in light of what Turkey’s continued presence in the region could pave the way for - the disappearance and religious and ethnic cleansing of Yazidis.

https://ahvalnews.com/yazidis/washingto ... m-watchdog

[Anthea]

Yazidi children left alone
to deal with ISIS captivity trauma

Nearly 2,000 Yazidi children who were subjected to horrendous human rights abuses at the hands of ISIS are not getting the help they need to deal with lasting physical and mental trauma, Amnesty International has warned

In a 64-page report published on Thursday, the rights groups said the survivors currently living in Iraq's Kurdish region have "effectively been abandoned" as they deal with severe debilitating long-term illnesses or physical impairments, as well as severe psychological problems.

While post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression are all common, other symptoms and behaviours include aggression, flashbacks, nightmares and severe mood swings, said the report which detailed the challenges faced by an estimated 1,992 children who survived torture, forced conscription, rape and other abuses during their 2014-2017 captivity.

Young female survivors of sexual violence are particularly vulnerable as they suffer from a range of health issues, including infection, scarring, and difficulties conceiving or carrying a child to term.

In the report, a doctor is quoted as saying that almost every girl she had treated between the ages of nine and 17 had been the victim of rape or other forms of sexual violence.

"These children were systematically subjected to the horror of life under ISIS, and now they've been left to pick up the pieces," said Matt Wells, deputy director of Amnesty's crisis response team.

"While the nightmare of their past has receded, hardships remain for these children."

'Please accept us'

The Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority numbering approximately 550,000 in their heartland of northwest Iraq before ISIS swept through the rugged region in 2014. Their belief combines elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions.

ISIS, which considers the Yazidis heretics, slaughtered thousands of Yazidi men, abducted women and girls and forced boys to fight on its behalf during the time it controlled large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Yazidi children were forcibly converted to Islam and taught Arabic, banned from speaking their native Kurdish.

Thousands of Yazidi boys were starved, tortured and forced to fight for ISIS. Many former child soldiers today live with missing arms or legs. They have also often been left isolated after their return, Amnesty said.

Sahir, a 15-year-old former ISIS child soldier, told the rights group he knew he needed mental health support to cope with his trauma but felt he had nowhere to turn.

"What I was looking for is just someone to care about me, some support, to tell me, 'I am here for you'," he said.

"This is what I have been looking for, and I have never found it."

Amnesty said access to education could help ease children back into society, but tens of thousands of Yazidis still live in camps for displaced people where schooling is irregular.

Many have also gone into debt from paying thousands of US dollars to smugglers to free Yazidi relatives who were held by ISIS.

The report also documents the plight of Yazidi women struggling to heal their psychological wounds after being forcibly wed to ISIS fighters and separated from their children born of rape.

Mothers interviewed by Amnesty said they were "pressured, coerced or even deceived" into leaving their children when they returned to their families.

"I want to tell [our community] and everyone in the world, please accept us, and accept our children ... I didn't want to have a baby from these people. I was forced to have a son," said 22-year-old Janan.

"We have all thought about killing ourselves, or tried to do it," said Hanan, a 24-year-old Yazidi whose daughter was taken from her.

Mothers must be reunited with their children, and no further separation should take place, Amnesty said.

"These women were enslaved, tortured and subjected to sexual violence. They should not suffer any further punishment," said Wells.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/ ... 57997.html

[Anthea]

Yazidi children freed from Daesh
haunted by health crisis

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the UN to renew its arms embargo against Iran before it expires on Oct. 18, during testimony at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the State Department’s annual budget

Pompeo warned that Iran remains a threat to Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Israel and the West, and pushed to continue sanctions against Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.

The State Department’s operating budget of nearly $41 billion includes funds for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), but Pompeo made no mention of the possibility of restoring USAID funding to Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

“We’ve rallied nations to our side through diplomacy — witness the designations of Hezbollah from European and South American countries,” Pompeo told Senate committee members on Thursday. “And we’ve bolstered our military readiness vis-a-vis Tehran.”

Pompeo said more needs to be done to confront Iran and prevent it from spreading terrorism and violence worldwide.

“The Security Council must renew the UN arms embargo against Iran before it expires on Oct. 18,” he added.

“Iran already mines ships in the Strait of Hormuz, launches missiles at Saudi oil facilities and ships arms to the Houthis. Should the Security Council fail to act, Iran will have a freer hand to sow destruction across the Middle East and indeed the world.”

Pompeo called for an indefinite renewal of the arms embargo against Iran during an appearance at the Security Council last month.

But he was rebuffed by the Russian and Chinese governments, while American allies seemed ambivalent about the idea.

Pompeo denounced Iran’s regime as “authoritarian” and as “an aggressor and not a victim.” He said of US efforts to confront Iran: “We’ve gone full bore on our maximum-pressure campaign. Since May of 2018, we’ve slashed the vital oil revenues the regime uses for terrorism and illegal nuclear activities by 90 percent.”

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1712421/middle-east

[Anthea]

Yazidis demand return
of children abducted by PKK

Yazidis in Iraq called on the central government in Baghdad to rescue their children who were kidnapped by the PKK terrorist organization, a local official said Wednesday

Living in the northern Sinjar region, Yazidis have been under pressure from the PKK since 2014.

Yazidi families held demonstrations demanding their kidnapped children be returned home in an effort to make their voices heard by the central government and UN.

"The PKK has abducted tens of our young people. That's why the PKK needs to be removed from the region," Veyis Naif, head of Sinjar's local council, told Anadolu Agency.

Naif urged the UN and Baghdad to step in as soon as possible. He also complained that the PKK had confiscated the locals' fields and did not allow them to harvest their crops.

"If the PKK were not here, 80% of the Shengali [Sinjar] people would have returned to their homes by now," he said, adding that locals wanted a common force, including Iraqi military and Peshmerga forces, to be deployed in the region to eliminate the terrorists.

According to local media, Yazidis held demonstrations in the Sinjar mountains, carrying photos of their abducted children.

Father Haydar Reso, whose son was taken by the PKK, said he would continue to protest until the government met their demand.

"My son was abducted about a year ago [...] I want the Iraqi government to rescue my son from the PKK," said a Yazidi mother.

A joint statement on behalf of the Yazidis in Sinjar was published after the demonstration, reiterating that the presence of PKK terrorists in the region would never be accepted.

"The PKK should leave Sinjar since Daesh [ISIS] members who committed great crimes against humanity against the Yazidis are taking sides with the PKK," the statement said.

In mid-2014, Daesh/ISIS overran roughly one-third of Iraq, including Mosul which it took as its main stronghold.

It also captured Sinjar, where it is accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the local Yazidi population.

By late 2017, the Iraqi army -- with the help of the US-led military coalition -- recovered most if not all the territories lost to the terrorist group.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/ir ... k/1926669#

[Anthea]

Calls for autonomous status for Êzîdxan

August 3 marks the sixth anniversary of the genocide against the Yazidis in Shengal (Sinjar)

On this day the jihadist terrorist militia ISIS attacked the settlement area of the Yazidi population in Northern Iraq and committed genocide and femicide. It is estimated that 10,000 people were killed. More than 7,000 women and children were abducted, more than 400,000 were displaced from their homes and thousands are still missing today.

The Confederation of the Communities from Kurdistan in Germany (KON-MED) calls on the anniversary of the ISIS raid on Shengal to participate in days of action organized under the motto "Self-determined against Femicide" by the umbrella organization of the Yazidi Women’s Council (Ezidischen Frauenrat).

The various actions such as demonstrations, rallies, photo exhibitions and theatre performances are planned in several cities throughout Germany. KON-MED demands an autonomous status for Êzîdxan (Land of the Yazidis) and the recognition of the self-administration and defence structures there as well as the gemicide in Shengal. "Only in this way can the international community face up to its historical responsibility towards the Yazidi people. And only an autonomous Êzîdxan can prevent this ancient people from suffering further massacres."

The plan of action for the events planned so far is as follows:

August 1, 2020

Bielefeld: Demonstration, main station, 3 pm

Kleve: Demonstration, Minoritenstraße 2 (next to the railway station), 2 pm

Oldenburg: Demonstration, main station, 2 pm

Bremen: Demonstration, main station, 12 o'clock

August 2, 2020

Berlin: Photo exhibition and seminar, Quitzowstraße 103, 4 pm

3 August 2020

Saarbrucken: Rally, Europa Galerie, 6 pm

Berlin: Rally, Platz der Republik 1, 2 pm

Achim: Information tent in the city centre, 3 pm

Münster: Rally, central station, 6 pm

Wesel: Rally, Am Berliner Tor, 5.30 pm

Nuremberg: Rally, Kornmarkt, 6 pm

Celle: Varied programme, Triftpark, 5 pm

Hamburg: rally, Sievekingplatz 2 (in front of the OLG Hamburg), 9 to 11 am

The International Women's Alliance of Hamburg has announced a rally on the occasion of the International Day of Action on August 3 at the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg. On Monday, the second day of the trial against ISIS returnee Elina F. will take place there.

[Anthea]

WHERE ARE THE PROTEST MARCHES

SUPPORTING THE YAZIDIS

If anyone knows of any protests

PLEASE

share the information with us

[Anthea]

Enablers of ISIS Iraq invasion
must be held to account:

Iraqi President Barham Salih on Sunday stressed the importance of holding those who helped facilitate the rise of the Islamic State group (ISIS) to account, and called on the Iraqi government and the international community to help Yezidis who have returned to Shingal

President Salih made the remarks during a conference on the genocide hosted by Yazda, a Yezidi human rights organisation,on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the genocide against the community.

“Today we remember the tragedy that the Yezidis faced six years ago today at the hands of the criminals of the terrorist organization ‘Daesh’ after they invaded Sinjar (Shingal) and committed the most brutal crimes,” Salih said during his opening speech, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

“We stress the importance of holding those accountable who caused the ISIS invasion of of Iraqi villages and cities,” he added.

Iraqi state-media announced on Saturday the release of Lieutenant Gen. Mahdi al-Gherawi, one of the military officials responsible for the fall of Mosul city to ISIS six years ago. The official was released after two years in jail after bail was paid for his release.

In the summer of 2014, ISIS extremists swept across swathes of Syria and Iraq. In August that year, they attacked the Yezidi homeland of Shingal in Nineveh province, committing genocide against the ethno-religious minority. Hundreds of thousands of Yezidis fled from the militants, but not everyone escaped. More than 1,000 were killed or and 6,417 were captured by the militants, with women and children sold into sexual slavery.

As of this month, 3,530 Yezidis have been rescued or escaped ISIS, and 2,887 are still missing, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s office documenting the genocide.

Six years later, the vast majority of Yezidis continue to live in a protracted state of displacement. Of the 400,000 Yezidis displaced by ISIS violence, 360,000 continue to live in IDP camps, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Yezidi Rescue Office statistics. Hundreds of families returned to the area last month, but face a difficult homecoming in destroyed villages with little to no public services.

“The main aim of the terrorists was to implement genocide against Yezidis and wipe them out from existence,” Salih said. “It is a real shame and is dangerous to neglect or fail to fulfill the needs of our people in Sinjar (Shingal),” he added.

Shingal is currently under the control of a host of forces, including the Iraqi Army, militias affiliated to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), PKK-affiliated Shingal Protection Units and Yezidi Peshmerga Units. Yezidis have expressed fear and uncertainty in returning home to this security context.

Salih also stressed the need of resolving the political and security issues in the area, and providing “stability and security” for the town in order to pave the way for further returnees.

The beginning of August also marks the Yezidi midsummer celebration, in which Yezidi people gather at their holy site of Lalish, near Sheikhan. Celebrations have been cancelled this year in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani released a statement on Sunday congratulating the Yezidi community on the midsummer celebrations and vowed to continue bringing back the abducted Yezidis.

“On this occasion, we remember and honor all of our Yezidi sisters and brothers who were targeted by the terrorist groups. We pay tribute to the memories of those who lost their lives and reassure the families of the abducted ones that we will continue to do our best to locate them and bring them back to their families and work to uncover the fate of the missing others,” Barzani said.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/020820203

[Anthea]

Lost in the Tomb of War

Yazidi community unites to remember Islamic State brutality

Mount Gambier's tight-knit Yazidi community will unite in grief to commemorate the date when Islamic State militants unleashed brutality on their homeland.

Key points:

Mount Gambier's Yazidi community marks its "black day"

Survivors call for action to rescue captured family members

Thousands of Yazidis died in 2014 in what has been described as a genocide

The regional city is home to South Australia's only Yazidis, who for centuries have been a stateless persecuted minority in northern Iraq.

On August 3, 2014, they were attacked by ISIS forces — thousands would eventually die in a campaign of terror described by the Australia Parliament as a genocide.

The small Yazidi community in Mount Gambier expressed hope South Australians would stand with them in a sign of solidarity.

Photos of friends and family members are stuck to a white bedroom wall.
Everything was taken from the Yazidis when ISIS attacked in 2014.(ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham)

Ahmed Murad, who arrived in Mount Gambier early this year, said he wanted the world and Australians to understand the enduring trauma of the survivors.

"My family are lost in the tomb of war," he said.

Despite the passage of time, extraordinary pain remains etched on Mr Murad's face.

"It was a moment no-one expected until I jumped over 2,000 corpses," he said.

"I could not believe that scene; I have never forgotten the blood, destruction and the screams of children echoing the sky.

Mass grave uncovered near Sinjar in northern Iraq
Men look through a mass grave near Sinjar.(Reuters: Ari Jalal)

Despite the horrific events, the Yazidi community remains hopeful its kidnapped women and children will one day return.

Many, like Mr Murad's sister, are still held captive and used as sex slaves, while others are harbouring in refugee camps after fleeing their homes.

Despite the unimaginable suffering and mass killings, Mr Murad said there had not been any serious action from around the world.

Mr Murad lived an idyllic life with this family before ISIS descended on his community.

Ahmed with shirt
Ahmed Murad shares his experience every year to remind people of the thousands still in captivity.(ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham)

On the night of the attack, two hours after midnight, he was one of thousands of people who were kidnapped, his head covered with a black cloth.

Extraordinarily, he escaped by scrambling on nearby rooftops and hiding at Mount Sinjar, where thousands of others sought refuge but where many were massacred.

Mr Murad now lives in Mount Gambier with his sister Jameelah and mother Adolah Abbaso, who uses a wheelchair after ISIS terrorists ran her down in a car.

A wheelchair access bed with coloured pencils on the mattress in a darkly lit room.
Ahmed Murad's mother uses a wheelchair after she was run down by a car.(ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham)

Salvana Awsee, who arrived in Mount Gambier in May last year with her siblings and mother, said she also wanted Australians to learn about the terror inflicted on her homeland.

The 24-year-old is expected to tell her story of that "black day" at the vigil.

"Together with my mother, brother and sisters, we fled with thousands of other Yazidis to Mount Sinjar where we stayed for seven days until we started walking to Syria and then to Kurdistan," she said.

"It took us about 12 hours to walk there," said Ms Awsee, who made the trek without shoes.

A woman with long black hair stands in front a bright painted mural of a Yazidi woman in a headdress.
Salvana Awsee lost her home and father in the genocide.(ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham)

Many Yazidis, especially children, died on the mountain because of the hot weather, hunger and thirst.

Her father was among the more than 10,000 Yazidis who were killed.

"The village of Kojo was destroyed, and to this day, many Yazidis are still missing or in captivity with ISIS," Ms Awsee said.

Mount Sinjar

Thousands fled to Mount Sinjar to seek refuge.(ABC News: Aaron Hollet)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-02/ ... e/12507418

[Anthea]

3 August 2020

Six Year Commemoration of the ISIS Genocide against Yezidis

Once again, on 3 August, the Yezidi community gathers to mourn those we have lost, remember those who are still missing, heal those who are suffering, and strive toward a better, safer, brighter future for our people.

This year, the Free Yezidi Foundation has five concrete recommendations designed to promote recovery and development for the Yezidi community. A critical component of progress in the Yezidi community in Iraq is to ensure that the international community does not strive only for a return to the pre-2014 status quo. That will not be good enough, and that will leave Yezidis vulnerable to the same sort of horrors that occurred six years ago today.

Instead, as stakeholders throughout the world seriously consider the welfare and future of Yezidis in Iraq, it is incumbent on all those who care about Yezidis to combat at least some of the fundamental root causes that have led to the othering and isolation of Yezidis, and to ensure that this ethno-religious minority group can enjoy the rights and freedoms that all people deserve.

Education and employment opportunities for Yezidis in Iraq

The process by which Yezidis have suffered marginalization and discrimination in Iraq did not begin or end with ISIS. As international efforts grow to support Yezidis and other minorities to return to their homelands, we must not forget the underlying root causes of Yezidi suffering, including the causes of the 2014 genocide.

Yezidis have historically had, and still currently have, fewer educational and employment opportunities than others in Iraq. This must end immediately if our people have a chance to improve their daily lives and avoid a return to disenfranchised lives of poverty and destitution.

Discrimination that prevents Yezidis from accessing employment should not be acceptable, and employers should never be able to make decisions based on religious or ethnic discrimination against any Iraqi citizen.

Universities in Iraq must make tangible, real efforts to include Yezidis in scholarship and enrollment plans. Foreign governments who support Iraqi students seeking scholarships should have a strictly enforced, generous quota for religious minorities, with special attention to Yezidis, and it must be more than a symbolic effort.

Basic education must be scaled up dramatically for the next Yezidi generation to have any chance at a better life. And foreign and domestic companies and businesses should make a concerted effort to include minorities in job placements to the greatest extent possible.

Subsistence farming with agricultural methods from previous centuries will not bring the Yezidi people protection or a successful future. For those seeking to help in the rebuilding and reconstruction of Sinjar, we hope donors will focus on building the skills and capacities of Yezidi men and women who are seeking work just as much as housing, infrastructure, and basic services.

Smart, targeted skills and job trainings can provide Yezidis with livelihood options that will stay with civilians for many years, empowering the Yezidi workforce of tomorrow. That is one reason why FYF puts a great deal of effort and funding into building the capacity of Yezidi men and women, even while they are in the IDP camps.

Iraq-wide education reform, to include accurate information about Iraqi ethnic and religious minorities

In 2014, ISIS members from all over the world participated in the massacres, kidnapping, and rape and torture of our people, on our own lands. How can a sovereign state allow its own citizens to be subjugated to such terror and abuse?

One reason is that Yezidis are discriminated against and misunderstood by their fellow Iraqi citizens. If other Iraqis will not eat food made by Yezidi hands and consider us devil worshippers, can we realistically expect anything better from that country’s governments?

To replace and abolish this level of religious intolerance and discrimination, Iraq should embark upon an ambitious and wide-ranging educational curriculum whereby every single primary school throughout the country is mandated to teach the true, accurate history and characterization of Iraq’s rich ethnic, religious, and cultural components.

Citizens are not born with false information or ignorant hatred against Yezidis – they learn it. And if the hate can be taught, the tolerance can also be taught. As this genocide has occurred on Iraqi soil, the Iraqi government has a solemn, moral responsibility to prevent this from ever happening to our people again.

The first step is educating the next generation about the dignity, value, and rights of all communities in Iraq, including Yezidis, even though we are not Muslim. The international community should apply pressure to the Iraqi Ministry of Education to implement such steps as soon as possible.

Stable security infrastructure in Sinjar

As families begin returning to Sinjar, there is a glimmer of hope that a new, safer, brighter future for the Yezidis in that area could emerge. But dangers face Yezidi families from every direction.

First and foremost, all military attacks against Sinjar should be immediately halted, and the Coalition to Defeat Daesh must be steadfast and vocal about this. The Turkish airstrikes in Sinjar constituted a blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and an outrageous attack against the people in Sinjar trying to return and rebuild after genocide. The international community must be firm and unyielding in rejection of such actions.

Security certainly is best handled in Sinjar by Yezidis, although ensuring the safety of families will be no easy feat. The international community may be hesitant to offer permanent military support in this area, but the Coalition can and should take some symbolic actions in Nineveh province to demonstrate its support and concern for persecuted civilians trying, bravely, to rebuild their towns and villages.

Trauma treatment

The collective and individual trauma facing nearly every Yezidi in the IDP camps is overwhelming. Humanitarian aid is being delivered, and much of it is naturally designated to reconstruct the areas throughout Nineveh province that were destroyed by ISIS. But the destruction has not only been physical.

The damage to men, women, children, and families is immense. Suicide rates are on the rise in the IDP camps. Our Foundation and most other organizations working with these communities can attest to a hopelessness and despair that is slowly becoming permanent and pervasive.

Mental health and psychosocial support are sometimes misunderstood as less tangible and therefore less important than the construction of homes, roads, and provision of electricity and water supply. But trauma treatment is absolutely essential after mass-scale atrocities like the ISIS genocide against Yezidis.

We have seen what miracles trauma therapy can deliver, and we also have seen what happens when suffering individuals are left alone with their pain, fears, trauma, and feelings of loss and despair. Provision of aid must continue to flow, and creative solutions can be found to maximize the use of this aid in providing comfort, care, and trauma treatment to Yezidis: men, women, and children alike.

Justice and accountability for ISIS crimes all over the world

Although it has been six years since the genocide began, there has been little concrete justice so far. International justice for atrocity violations requires a long, difficult, and slow road. We understand that, and Rwanda and former Yugoslavia have illustrated just how long the process of justice can be.

It has not been difficult for Iraq, the United States, and European countries to bring charges against ISIS members for material support for terrorism or membership in a terrorist group. That is a first step; perhaps, but to understand ISIS members as terrorists misses an enormous point. ISIS crimes of kidnapping, rape, and enslavement are not minor details.

The enormous scale of enslavement and sexual violence have not yet registered properly in domestic or international courts. These are terrorists, that is true, but the crimes that have been committed were more sinister, brutal, and sadistic than suicide bombings or IED traps. Genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, and enslavement are categorically different than terrorism.

As a deterrent, there should be special protection for endangered minorities groups in Iraq, and one piece of this can be the legislation and enforcement of increased punishment for hate crimes. Even during times of peace, Yezidis have at times suffered from targeted attacks. Like minorities in other parts of the world, Yezidis would benefit from laws that impose stiff sentences on those who commit hate crimes.

Nonetheless, in the last six years, something has changed. Now, ISIS members are the hunted ones. The Yezidi community will never cease in its efforts to identify and bring to justice ISIS perpetrators, if it takes 5, 10, 20, or 50 years.

We know that thousands of ISIS members are hiding in Syria and Iraq. They have returned to their lives and act like they have not committed crimes. But we are looking for them. And there are also thousands of ISIS members in foreign countries, especially in Europe, who travelled to Iraq and Syria, plundered, destroyed, raped and murdered, and then returned home as if it had all been a vacation for them.

ISIS will not be able to return to their previous lives. They now must wonder when the Yezidi community will identify them, with the benefit of law enforcement, court injunctions, investigations, technology, and any legal tools to bring the rapists, pedophiles, slave traders, kidnappers, murderers and genocidaires to justice.

We will never stop until perpetrators are held to account for what they have done, and we urge international and domestic mechanisms and law enforcement agencies to maintain and increase the pressure until these criminals, the worst of all criminals, are brought to justice.

For more information, visit http://www.freeyezidi.org.

https://www.freeyezidi.org/blog/fyf-sta ... t-yezidis/

[Anthea]

Yazidi boy who survived ISIS captivity

Now he can't come to Canada unless he leaves his big brother behind



Zainal Ato spends time with his older brother Ahmed Ato as he heals from wounds sustained during the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani. (Road To Peace)

Nobody knows exactly what happened to Zainal Ato between the time he was kidnapped by ISIS at the age of six or seven, and when he was found last year — wounded and alone, in the battle-torn Syrian town of Baghouz.

Now the traumatized 12-year-old Yazidi boy has an opportunity to find refuge in Canada, where he has family.

There's just one problem. Zainal won't go without his older brother Ahmed — who Canada won't take in because he took up arms against invading ISIS fighters in 2014, says the founder of a U.K. charity.

"He has this strong bond with Ahmed, and it's just impossible for us to imagine tearing these two brothers apart," Sally Becker of Road to Peace told As It Happens guest host Susan Bonner.

"The Canadian government have been amazing — welcoming survivors, providing a safe haven when all the other countries were basically closing their doors. So I'm just hoping that the prime minister will review this case and take into account what's happened to Zainal and allow Ahmed to accompany his little brother to Canada."

Canada's Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship would not comment on Zainal and Ahmed Ato's cases, citing privacy concerns, but said Canada makes "every effort" to reunite separated refugees.

The Yazidis are a religious minority who were targeted by ISIS fighters in Iraq in a brutal campaign described by the United Nations as genocide.

Monday marks the sixth anniversary of the genocide, when thousands of Yazidis were either slaughtered or abducted in the northern Iraq province Sinjar — Zainal among them.

Becker first became aware of Zainal's case in March 2019, when she was in Syria with Road to Peace, a charity that helps children in war zones. She was looking for Yazidi children left behind after coalition forces drove ISIS militants from their stronghold in Baghouz a month earlier.

Zainal had been found by Syrian Defence Forces outside an ISIS compound in the aftermath of the battle, his leg full of shrapnel and his thigh badly fractured.

Zainal, a 12-year-old Yazidi boy, was severely malnourished when he was found wounded and alone in Syria in 2019. (Road To Peace)

She believes the ISIS fighters likely threw him outside when the compound was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. She says he doesn't appear to have ever been trained as a fighter, as is the fate of many abducted Yazidi boys — possibly because he was so young and frail, and had trouble with his hands.

"He was lying there with his injuries in the dust with no food, no water, no one to comfort him. And as far as we can tell, he must have been there for days," Becker said.

"He was so thin and so dehydrated. He'd had nothing, and I suppose it's a miracle he didn't die."
'Very gentle and very affectionate'

The soldiers took the boy to a nearby hospital, where doctors used a metal fixator to treat his compound fracture, Becker said, but had few resources to do much else.

His wound became infected, and Road to Peace paid to have him moved to a hospital in Duhok, Iraq, for further treatment.

That's where Becker first met him.

"I bought him an iPad, and to be honest, I thought he might sort of look for things that show aggression, you know, fighting and bombing, because of what he'd seen and experienced," she said.

"Instead he went straight to YouTube and he found this little girl singing a song, a Yadizi song. It was amazing to see that."

Zainal, 12, survived five years of confinement by ISIS and has been offered refuge in Canada — but he doesn't want to go without his older brother. (Road to Peace)

Shortly after Zainal was found, abandoned by his captors, the boy was reunited with his older brother Ahmed, who has remained by his side.

"[Zainal is] very gentle and very affectionate. The problem is that he has a lot of trauma and he suffers from separation anxiety because, of course, he lost most of his family at the time. His parents are still missing, probably dead. And all he's known since he was rescued is Ahmed, his brother, who he absolutely adores," Becker said.

"They bonded, of course, immediately. And Ahmed has taken care of him ever since."

Zainal has two brothers and five sisters currently living in London, Ont., all of them survivors of the genocide. They want Zainal to come to Canada to live with them.

As It Happens has spoken to Zainal's family in Canada to confirm his story. The siblings, however, speak little English and asked that Becker tell their story publicly.

He needs to go to Canada. He needs to live a normal life in peace. He needs to have trauma therapy and to do normal things. But the fact is that I think if they take him away from Ahmed, he won't survive.

Sally Becker, Road To Peace founder

Becker says Zainal doesn't appear to remember his other siblings, which is common for Yazidis abducted as children. She says he doesn't want to leave Iraq without Ahmed, who is married with a child of his own.

The Canadian government has been working with UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, to resettle more than 1,400 Yazidi survivors.

However, Becker said the UNHCR told Ahmed he and his family don't qualify for resettlement in Canada because when Sinjar was attacked, Ahmed joined the Yazidi Protection Force to defend his people, and fought with them for several months.

The Canadian government wouldn't comment directly on Ahmed's refugee case.

"Our government has a clear track record as the global leader in welcoming refugees, having more than doubled Canada's refugee numbers. We have provided a new home to more than 1,400 women and their families who endured the brutality of Daesh [ISIS], 85 per cent of whom are Yazidi," Kevin Lemkay, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marco E. L. Mendicino, said in an emailed statement.

"We understand the importance of keeping family members together and make every effort to help reunite them when they are separated."

The UNHCR did not respond to a request for comment.

"Ahmed, he's a Yazidi. He'd watched his family torn apart and his people destroyed. He'd seen women and girls taken away and sold as sex slaves and the men were executed. The only reason he wasn't taken is because he was working in Kurdistan at the time," Becker said.

"It doesn't make sense to me. I mean, it's because nobody was there fighting for these people that these terrible things happened in 2014, and some are still happening even now."

We helped to fund Zainal’s treatment when he was rescued from Baghouz last year but he is in need of further surgery. Canada has kindly offered him asylum but only if he leaves his brother behind. It’s a very sad situation. I hope you can do something to help him. <a href="https://twitter.com/CanadianPM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CanadianPM</a> <a href="https://t.co/vftf4d1Gjr">https://t.co/vftf4d1Gjr</a>
&mdash;@sallybecker121

Zainal's wound has healed, Becker said, but he still requires surgery to lengthen the bone in his injured leg. He also has brain damage and serious psychological trauma.

Severe PTSD is common among Yazidi survivors, many of whom endured horrific physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of ISIS fighters.

"It really is traumatizing for everyone who knows about it because he is so sweet and so loving," Becker said.

"He needs to go to Canada. He needs to live a normal life in peace. He needs to have trauma therapy and to do normal things. But the fact is that I think if they take him away from Ahmed, he won't survive. I really don't think he'll survive."

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from Sylvene Gilchrist. Interview produced by Kate Swoger.

[Anthea]

Six Years One Woman Reflects

A Yazidi woman struggles with the trauma of the ISIS genocide that devastated her people and her life six years ago this week

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Six years ago this week, ISIS killed thousands of people - mostly women and children - and enslaved thousands more. They were Yazidis, a religious minority in Iraq. ISIS was defeated, but those who survived the genocide continue to struggle with what they went through. NPR's Jane Arraf has one woman's story. And a note - it is a difficult story to hear. It includes descriptions of violence and a suicide attempt.

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: We're sitting in a trailer with a woman who tells us sometimes she forgets her name.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).

ARRAF: When she was held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, they called her different names - Um Aziz, Um Khalid, Um Ruqaya. All of those mean the mother of, customary even if a woman doesn't have a child. When she had her daughter, she named her Hiba, and she became known as Um Hiba. We're not identifying her because she's still vulnerable.

The baby's father was an ISIS fighter from Mosul, the fourth man who claimed to own her in three years of enslavement. Her torment started in 2014 when ISIS took over northern Iraq and she fled with hundreds of thousands of Yazidis to the mountains. She was 16. There was no food or water or even shelter from the sun. When they came down from Mount Sinjar, ISIS captured them. Amid U.S. airstrikes, ISIS fighters took the teenager and thousands of other Yazidis deeper into Iraq and Syria. She was married at the time and two months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) They were beating us with their boots, rifle butts, anything they had in their hands. I started bleeding, and the baby was gone.

ARRAF: She told me her story when we met last year in the camp she lives in for displaced families in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. She still doesn't know what happened to her husband. She says in the towns they went through, ISIS gathered the girls and women on buses.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) In the market, they were calling out with a speaker, there are Yazidi girls here for sale. Sometimes ISIS fighters would board the bus and choose one of us. They would drive around with a speaker, saying, if you don't have an infidel yet, this is your chance to take one.

ARRAF: Um Hiba ended up living with the ISIS fighter in Mosul and his other wife and children. For two years, she was raped and beaten. Sometimes her ISIS husband would hit the baby, but she tried hard to keep Hiba safe. She managed to escape when Iraqi and U.S. forces started taking back Mosul.

When we meet her in the camp, Um Hiba has been here for two years. Her dark hair is pulled back in a ponytail, her face scrubbed and her expression haunted. She came back with her baby even though the closed Yazidi community doesn't accept children from the ISIS fathers who killed and enslaved them. She kept her daughter with her in the camp for three months.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) When we came to the camp, people were saying that she's the daughter of ISIS. Then she got sick. She wasn't walking. I really wanted to keep her. But some people were saying, if you do not abandon her, we will either kill her or burn your tent down so you will all burn together.

ARRAF: So Um Hiba, who never went to school and can't read or write, witnessed a piece of paper from an aid organization, agreeing to give up her daughter. She gave away her right to ever see the child or find out what happened to her, and she's tormented by it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) Any time I see a mother calling, carrying or taking her child to a shop, I wish I had my child, too, to take care of her, play with her, kiss her and smell her.

ARRAF: Um Hiba lives in poverty - like almost all the Yazidi survivors - with her mother, her brother and two blind sisters. She says her brother calls her names. Her mother yells at her. She tells us the night before was the last straw.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) Yesterday evening, I found myself angry and in a completely different world. Our neighbor's daughter came over, and I was playing with her. I even called her Hiba by mistake, and her mother said that she didn't want me to play with her daughter. My family started shouting at me.

ARRAF: Um Hiba says she was so upset she went to the shop and bought rat poison and locked herself in the kitchen.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) My friend shouted and screamed and said, you're not the only one taken by ISIS; there are thousands.

ARRAF: She says her family broke the lock with a brick and took the poison away from her. Her mother was crying. The neighbors were shouting.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) They said, have you lost your mind? I said, if a mother is alive and not able to see her daughter and goes through all of this, why did God make it that human beings love their children?

ARRAF: That was last year. We talked to Um Hiba again recently, and she says she's still the same, dreaming that she might somehow get her child back and find a place where she and her daughter could be together. Her story is one of many. We've interviewed other young women tormented because they were forced to leave their children from ISIS fathers behind in Syria if they wanted to come home. They know the orphanage where the children are, but the issue of children with ISIS fathers is so controversial that no one, neither governments nor international organizations, are willing to help reunite them. Amnesty International's Nicolette Waldman says reuniting them is a basic right.

NICOLETTE WALDMAN: We're calling on the national authorities in Iraq to intervene and to make sure that when women who have given birth to these children as a result of sexual violence have been separated and, if they want to reunite, they should be able to reunite with them. It's just very straightforward international law.

ARRAF: An Amnesty report concluded survivors of the genocide, particularly children, need help they're just not getting. It says the children have been essentially abandoned by their government and the international community. More than 3,000 Yazidis came back from ISIS captivity to joyful welcomes. But like Um Hiba, they're still living the trauma.

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/02/89827487 ... 6509135868