‘Too little, too late:’ HRW slams Iraqi compensation of ISIS victims

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi authorities have failed to adequately compensate thousands of Yazidis and other groups who faced severe persecution and damages during the years-long war against the Islamic State (ISIS) with many residents unable to rebuild their homes and languishing in camps, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. 

The Yazidis were subjected to countless atrocities including sexual slavery, forced marriages, and massacres when ISIS took over their heartland of Sinjar in 2014, as many of their villages and towns were razed and thousands of the minority group were forced to flee to displacement camps across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. 

Many have been unable to return to their villages and hometowns, which were largely destroyed during the war against ISIS along with businesses and basic infrastructure. The US-based rights group blamed their inability to return on a lack of compensation provided for the damages inflicted by ISIS as well as by the Iraqi army and US-led coalition as the fight to retake Sinjar district raged on. 

“Without compensation, many Sinjaris lack the financial means to rebuild their homes and businesses, so returning home is simply not an option,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at HRW. “Iraqi authorities should distribute funds already earmarked for compensation to help people go home and rebuild their lives.” 

As of 2023, the 200,000 Sinjaris who remain displaced include 85 percent of the district’s Yazidi population. 

Members of the ethnoreligious community who decided to return are facing an unstable security situation with poor or nonexistent public services, such as water, healthcare, electricity, and education. 

When ISIS overran the Yazidi heartland of Sinjar in August 2014 and committed atrocities including genocide against the group, more than 6,000 Yazidis were abducted and around 2,700 remain missing with little done to bring solace to the rescued. 

The majority of captives are held in northeast Syria’s (Rojava) notorious al-Hol camp, the former head of Yazidi affairs at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) endowment ministry Khayri Bozani told Rudaw English in August. The camp is infamously branded a breeding ground for terrorism, a “ticking time bomb,” and a facility where ISIS sleeper cells maintain very strong influence and frequently carry out killings.

“The first group of 420 Yazidi women received financial compensation under the Yazidi Survivors Law in February 2023,” HRW said. 

The Yazidi Survivors Law formally recognizes acts of genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated by ISIS against the Yazidi, Christian, Turkmen, and Shabak communities by ISIS. It envisages a fixed salary, the provision of land, and allocates two percent of public sector jobs.

Around 10,500 Sinjaris have applied for compensation through the Sinjar Compensation Office since 2021 and although 5,000 of these claims have been approved, no family has received the funds to which they are entitled, a representative from the office told HRW. 

“The Iraqi government should address bottlenecks in the compensation process that hinder the timely payment of funds to applicants and ensure that Law No. 20 is sufficiently funded,” HRW stated. “Additionally, to lift other barriers to return to Sinjaris and fulfill the economic rights of everyone who had been living there.” 

The process of applying for compensation is costly, lengthy, and full of bureaucracy. Applicants must obtain official documents from multiple agencies and the final step of the process involves proving that an applicant is not affiliated to ISIS. 

“I spent one year and 300,000 IQD ($205) working on my claim and going from department to department. It was a big hassle. Everybody knows we fled because of ISIS, so why do we need to go to National Security to prove we aren’t ISIS? It’s a crime. Your house is destroyed and then you need to pay to be compensated for something that wasn’t your fault,” a shopkeeper in Duhok’s Khanke camp told HRW. 

Due to the costs of completing the application, many Yazidi victims have decided against the procedure altogether. The amounts allocated by the damage detection committee are usually also insufficient to rebuild a house. 

Many undamaged or partially damaged houses in Sinjar town are also being occupied by other returnees from destroyed or unsafe towns and villages around Sinjar.  

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2022 annual report last week criticized the Iraqi government’s inability to adequately implement the Yazidi Survivors Law while also slamming both governments in Erbil and Baghdad for their failure to implement the 2020 Sinjar agreement. The Iraqi federal government and the KRG signed an agreement in 2020 to restore security in Sinjar, but it has yet to be fully implemented.

Clashes between the Iraqi army and the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) – an all-Yazidi militia affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – in May of last year led to the displacement of over three thousand residents from the city. 

YBS has controlled parts of Sinjar since ISIS was defeated in the town but the presence of the force and several other forces in the district has been blamed for insecurity which has prevented thousands of its residents who fled due to the war on ISIS from returning. The YBS also attract Turkish airstrikes as it is regarded by Ankara as a front for the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey.

The Sinjar agreement between Baghdad and Erbil includes the withdrawal of all PKK-affiliated forces from the city. Despite both the KRG and the Iraqi government calling on all armed groups to leave Sinjar on several occasions, the agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies.

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