Some shops have opened in Shingal, the Yezidi-town recaptured two months ago from the Islamic group ISIS who occupied it for a year and a half. The local telephone tower has been re-equipped, after having been taken out of use as part of ISIS’ no-connection policy. Water tankers drive on and off to bring water to soldiers and shopkeepers, and generators hum to provide electricity. But the rubble still lies where it was when Peshmerga troops liberated the town in November. Even the collapsed Manara, a historical monument that was part of the face of the town, has been left untouched. As have the roads, of which many are blocked by the effects of the bombing campaigns that eventually led to ISIS fleeing the town. Some of the enormous tunnel network under the town still has not been discovered. The same goes for some explosives and booby-traps ISIS left behind. And most importantly, ISIS still is out there, only at about 10 kilometres from the town. Yet the Kurdish mayor of Shingal, Mahma Khalil, states that civilians will return as soon as the most important services have been restored. Give them water and electricity, and they will come back, is his message. A first report about the damages shows that some ten million dollars is needed to restore those services again. Money that is not available, because the Kurdish region of Iraq is just about bankrupt and Iraq is in no hurry to dip in. Though the Kurdish Peshmerga played a major role in liberating Shingal, and the Iraqi army none, the political status of the province remains unclear. Officially it is part of Iraq, but it is ruled by Kurdistan. The Kurds have put their boots down in different ways: it is their military that is now occupying the town and keeping ISIS at bay, their mayor is in charge and their security police checks on who comes and goes. They want Shingal to become a province of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and the future independent Kurdish state. At the same time, the only civilians that I recently met in Shingal-town, apart from the few shopkeepers caring mainly for the soldiers’ needs, were evangelical Christians, and no Yezidis. While no NGO has settled in town to start the rebuilding process, a group of young evangelicals did, to repair houses, as they state. Other civilians have visited, and some men have returned on day trips to do some repairs. Even others are driving in and out, collecting what ISIS left behind, or what was still left in houses the group already looted. The shopkeepers who came, left their families behind in the Kurdish refugee camps. When asked if they will bring them if there was water and electricity, they point out: “ISIS still is out there”. That, plus the fact that ISIS still has not been evicted from a large number of villages in the area, are main obstacles for people to return. So much so that since Shingal has been liberated, the flow of Yezidis leaving Iraq has not decreased, but rather only grown. Of the about 80,000 who have left since August 2014, half left recently. They saw the rubble, they heard the politicians exchanging claims for their land and they saw how near ISIS still is. That caused so much desperation that many took the risk of crossing the seas between Turkey and Greece, with weekly reports of families drowning on the way. It is clear that Yezidis will keep trying to get to a better life as long as they do not see a future in their own region. The only way to keep them in Iraq, is to offer them a future here, as is also the wish of their religious leaders. Leaving the rubble untouched, two months on, does not send the right message. Nor does the declaration of the mayor, that he is waiting for international support. His call for a Marshall- plan to rebuild the city tells civilians nothing will change any time soon. NGO’s had made plans for rebuilding Shingal after the liberation. What happened to them? Where are UN-organisations and the international NGO’s that could help Shingal out of this impasse? The main thing now is to get started, to end the waiting. That it can be done was proven in the Syrian Kurdish town Kobane, where civilians soon came back to clear rubble and rebuild – whilst ISIS had not been pushed back much further than in Shingal. Civilians need to see that authorities and NGO’s are working to clear up their town. They must have the sense that they are supported, and that they can count on the help of their own government(s) as much as on the outside world. Only when they are convinced to join the effort can Shingal slowly come alive again and, just as important: can more horrible drownings be prevented. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
