President Barzani calls on Iraq to do ‘much more’ for Yazidis

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq must take “much more” responsibility for its Yazidi citizens who went through heinous atrocities when the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked their heartland in 2014, by providing them with hope and justice to rebuild their lives, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said on Monday. 

“Iraq is a wealthy country. The Yazidi community, as Iraqi citizens, has many rights from the state. Iraq must take much more ownership of its Yazidi citizens. It is the duty of all of us in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and the international community to do whatever is necessary and possible for Yazidis,” Barzani said in a speech. 

Barzani was speaking at the International Academic Conference on the 2014 Yazidi Genocide in Erbil, hosted by the University of Kurdistan Hewler (UKH). The conference focuses on the “long-term socio-economic efforts on Yazidi survivors, psychological impact of the genocide, and human rights and international law pertaining to the genocide,” according to its agenda. 

ISIS launched a brutal offensive across swathes of northern and western Iraq in June 2014. By August, the group began its onslaught on the Yazidi community in their heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in Nineveh province, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Yazidi men and older women.

The jihadists also abducted some 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking. Around 400,000 Yazidis were forced to flee, with most seeking refuge in the Kurdistan Region, according to data from the Office for Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, operating under the Kurdistan Region Presidency.

“Today, the simplest right of the Yazidis is to have enough peace and security in their areas so they can return, to have enough reconstruction and services so they can face their homeland again and start a new life,” Barzani stated.

He called it “very regrettable” that “nearly half of the Yazidi community” continues to linger in displacement camps 11 years after ISIS’s brutal takeover of their heartland. “There are Yazidi children who are 11 years old today and have lived their entire lives in the difficult and harsh environment of camps,” the Kurdistan Region’s president said. 

Although Iraq declared the full liberation of its territory from ISIS in 2017, around 21,000 Yazidi families remain displaced, primarily in camps in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.

The Yazidis were subjected to heinous atrocities under ISIS’s brutal rule, including mass killings. The jihadists brought destruction to many villages and towns populated by the community and committed genocide.

The United Nations and several Western countries have recognized ISIS’s crimes against the Yazidis as genocide.

President Barzani urged the implementation of the Shingal Agreement to resolve the situation in the area. 

“Yazidis and their areas must no longer be an arena for illegal forces and the settlement of regional agendas. For this, we are ready for all cooperation and coordination with Baghdad,” Barzani asserted.

In 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) signed the Shingal Agreement to restore governance, security, and stability to the district and resolve a number of issues that have prevented the return of its inhabitants. Under that deal, Baghdad was to assume responsibility for security, expelling all armed groups and establishing a new armed force recruited from the local population. 

Political disputes over the region between Baghdad and Erbil, as well as the presence of armed groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), have disrupted the reconstruction of the city that suffered heavy destruction during the war against ISIS.

The agreement has never been fully implemented, and thousands of Yazidis are still unable to return home.

“Achieving justice for Yazidis is not only through punishing the criminals and perpetrators of the genocide, but through serious attention and work for Yazidis that encompasses all aspects and areas of their lives,” said Barzani, stressing that assurances must be provided that such tragedies will not be repeated. 

He vowed that the Kurdistan Region will continue its pursuit for justice for the community “until the rescue of the last kidnapped Yazidi.” 

Since its establishment, the Kurdistan Region Presidency’s Office for Rescuing Abducted Yazidis has succeeded in rescuing 3,950 Yazidis from ISIS captivity, according to office head Hussein Qaidi.

[Source: Rûdaw English]