ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Yazidi lawmakers and officials have rejected a proposal to appoint a military commander as the acting governor of Shingal (Sinjar) district in Nineveh province, warning that the move would amount to imposing military rule on an area that has suffered years of conflict and displacement.
Murad Ismael, head of the Yazidi Cause Alliance bloc in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw's Gashaw Khalid on Saturday that any decision concerning the district must involve its residents "must be made through the residents of the district themselves."
He accused government and military officials of attempting to reach a new agreement without consulting the Yazidi community. “There is a secret attempt to pass a new agreement through advisors and military parties, aiming to marginalize the Yazidi community and erase their entitlements,” Ismael said.
Shingal is one of the Kurdistan Region’s disputed territories and has remained politically and militarily fragmented since the Islamic State’s (ISIS) 2014 attack on the district, which forced tens of thousands of Yazidis to flee their homes.
The Yazidi community has repeatedly called for the withdrawal of armed groups, the return of displaced residents and the establishment of a unified civilian administration in the district.
To normalize the situation in the town, an agreement was signed between the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 2020, which also aimed to facilitate the return of displaced people and establish a new civilian administrative and security structure.
However, most provisions of the agreement have yet to be implemented.
Ghazwan Dawoudi, the first deputy governor of Nineveh, told Rudaw that a high-level meeting was held on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Shingal.
“Last Tuesday, a high-level delegation consisting of Abdul-Amir Shammari, director of the Office of the Commander in Chief of Iraq's Armed Forces; Qasim al-Aboudi, National Security Advisor; and Basim Badri, Director of the Iraqi National Security Service, met to discuss the Shingal issue,” Dawoudi said.
According to Dawoudi, Shammari proposed appointing Ali Fadhel Omran, commander of West Nineveh Operations, as Shingal’s district governor for three months until a permanent governor is selected.
“Shammari proposed that Ali Fadhel Omran, Commander of West Nineveh Operations, be appointed for three months until a permanent District Governor is chosen. However, as the representative of the Governor and in accordance with the law, I rejected the proposal,” Dawoudi said.
Ismael warned that the Yazidis would launch mass protests if the government proceeds with the proposal, they “will begin a grassroots movement and organize the largest protest in the history of Shingal to reject the policy of imposition and marginalization,” he said.
Majid Shingali, a former Iraqi MP, also opposed the proposal, saying it would establish military rule in the district.
Assigning the commander of West Nineveh Operations as Shingal’s district governor “establishes military rule in the district, which is a clear violation of the constitution and the laws that regulate local government affairs,” Shingali told Rudaw.
“Shingal and its residents have suffered immensely; they now need their district to be cleared of all forms of armed and military presence,” he added.
He said the district instead needs a civilian administration capable of gaining the trust of its different communities.
“What Shingal currently deserves is a national civilian administration that is trusted by all communities and possesses a genuine desire for social reconciliation,” Shingali said.
In June 2014, ISIS seized large parts of northern and western Iraq. By August, the group launched a brutal campaign against the Yazidi community in Shingal, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Yazidi men and older women, and abducting 6,000 to 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking.
The United Nations officially recognized the campaign against the Yazidis as a genocide.
During the ISIS attack on the town, around 400,000 Yazidis were forced to flee, with most seeking refuge in the Kurdistan Region. Although Iraq declared full liberation from ISIS in 2017, around 200,000 Yazidis remain displaced 12 years after the genocide, Pascal Reyntjens, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) chief in Iraq, told Rudaw last month.
“In August 2014, between 250,000 and 400,000 Yazidis fled Sinjar during the invasion of Daesh. Of those displaced, we can estimate that about 150,000 Yazidis have returned to Sinjar,” Reyntjens said, noting that “we still have another 200,000 who are most likely still displaced, either in the country... or abroad."
Their return is hindered by ongoing security concerns and the presence of various armed groups in Shingal.
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