By Muhammad Izzaddin
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish authorities have selected 25 Yezidi mass graves in Iraq for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to examine and possibly recognize the ISIS onslaught against the religious minority as genocide.
The Kurdish Minister of Social Affairs Muhammad Hawdinai said the graves had largely been left undisturbed for ICC specialists to analyze and collect proof for a case to identify the mass murder by the Islamic State group (ISIS) as genocide.
The exact number of Yezidis killed or abducted by the militants has been increasingly difficult to establish, as many Yezidi families chose not to return to their areas and continue to stay in refugee camps across the Kurdistan region.
According to data provided by the Office of Yezidi Affairs in Kurdistan, nearly 2,500 Yezidis are confirmed dead, most of them in mass executions that took place at the start of the ISIS capture of Shingal in August 2014. But the number could be substantially higher as many Yezidis are still missing, the office says.
Iraq’s migration office says tens of thousands of Yezidis have also left the country as refugees for Germany, where there is already a sizable Yezidi community in exile.
“Our biggest challenge at the moment is that Iraq is not a signature member of the ICC and that has made it very difficult for the international court to enter the country and collect evidence,” Hawdinai told Rudaw.
“We are now working with the Iraqi authorities to invite the ICC experts for an examination of the remains even if Iraq is not a member,” he added.
The evidence include thes the Solage mass grave, east of the Yezidi town of Shingal, where remains of more than 70 people were discovered in November 2015. Many of them were believed to be old men and women, who according to survivors were separated from their younger family members before being executed behind a city college.
“It is of utter importance that the ICC recognizes the mass atrocity as genocide, which will give the Yezidis further protection in the future against similar attacks,” said Deputy Speaker of the Kurdish Parliament Jaafar Ibrahim.
The ICC, an intergovernmental organization and an international court at the Hague in the Netherlands, has the authority to indict individuals and groups for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The United Nations Security Council or individual states can refer investigations to the ICC for international prosecutions.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish authorities have selected 25 Yezidi mass graves in Iraq for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to examine and possibly recognize the ISIS onslaught against the religious minority as genocide.
The Kurdish Minister of Social Affairs Muhammad Hawdinai said the graves had largely been left undisturbed for ICC specialists to analyze and collect proof for a case to identify the mass murder by the Islamic State group (ISIS) as genocide.
The exact number of Yezidis killed or abducted by the militants has been increasingly difficult to establish, as many Yezidi families chose not to return to their areas and continue to stay in refugee camps across the Kurdistan region.
According to data provided by the Office of Yezidi Affairs in Kurdistan, nearly 2,500 Yezidis are confirmed dead, most of them in mass executions that took place at the start of the ISIS capture of Shingal in August 2014. But the number could be substantially higher as many Yezidis are still missing, the office says.
Iraq’s migration office says tens of thousands of Yezidis have also left the country as refugees for Germany, where there is already a sizable Yezidi community in exile.
“Our biggest challenge at the moment is that Iraq is not a signature member of the ICC and that has made it very difficult for the international court to enter the country and collect evidence,” Hawdinai told Rudaw.
“We are now working with the Iraqi authorities to invite the ICC experts for an examination of the remains even if Iraq is not a member,” he added.
The evidence include thes the Solage mass grave, east of the Yezidi town of Shingal, where remains of more than 70 people were discovered in November 2015. Many of them were believed to be old men and women, who according to survivors were separated from their younger family members before being executed behind a city college.
“It is of utter importance that the ICC recognizes the mass atrocity as genocide, which will give the Yezidis further protection in the future against similar attacks,” said Deputy Speaker of the Kurdish Parliament Jaafar Ibrahim.
The ICC, an intergovernmental organization and an international court at the Hague in the Netherlands, has the authority to indict individuals and groups for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The United Nations Security Council or individual states can refer investigations to the ICC for international prosecutions.
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