Yezidis demand UN action a year after Shingal massacre

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — More than 50 Kurdish Yezidi women, men and children gathered outside the United Nations building in Erbil on Sunday to shed light on the bloody massacre that befell the Yezidis in Shingal nearly one year ago.

Cloaked in traditional white and black garb and carrying banners with pleas and calls to action, the group gathered under a roofed UN entrance to deliver a multitude of messages with the same theme.

“We demand the liberation of Yezidi women and girls who are still in captivity of the terrorist organization of ISIS,” one demonstrator yelled, reciting the sentence written on a large black banner at the group’s center.

“The Unites Nations and the International Security Council now have an ethical responsibility more than a legal one toward Yezidis,” another protester chimed in.

Throughout the two-hour long event, the group often broke into call and response chants—in Kurdish, Arabic and English—centered on the liberation of Shingal and demand for peace and coexistence.

Between the demonstrators and the UN entrance stood cement barriers and more than 40 riot police and security personnel who, at times, forced crowd members away from the entrance.

The event was tame overall, but the anger and frustration of demonstrators was apparent and likely fueled by the significance of the date: the day before the one-year mark of the Islamic State’s brutal slaughter in Shingal and nearby Yezidi villages.

On August 3, 2014, ISIS sieged the mountains of Shingal and massacred its villagers. An estimated 2,000 Yezidis were killed by ISIS during the attacks, and another 2,000 women remain in the terrorists’ captivity. The women who have survived are being sold and used as sex slaves for the ISIS militants, according to multiple reports, while children are forced to enroll in military training camps.

Around 450,000 displaced Yezidis have taken refuge in the Kurdistan region, and many others in Turkey and Syria.

Sunday’s demonstration, which was arranged by the activist group Dak Organization for Yezidi Women Development, aimed at rallying international support for the group’s cause.

An open letter written by the group and addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations made a series of demands, including the official labeling of the Shingal massacre as genocide, the guaranteed protection of minorities in their territories and full support from Peshmerga forces to liberate Shingal, among several others.

“We can’t sleep when we know what is happening to our women,” said Awaz Khalil Smo, a 24-year-old Yezidi who lives near Duhok. “If anybody cares about humanity, they will care about this.”

Behind Smo, another Yezidi woman held a sign that read: “Mom, come back. I need you to hold me in your arms.”

Several similar demonstrations, including a conference in Duhok, have been scheduled throughout the Kurdistan region for Monday.

Yezidis demand UN action a year after Shingal massacre

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