Exhumation of mass graves begins in Yazidi village

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The exhumation of mass graves of victims of the Islamic State (ISIS) begins on the northern side on Mount Shingal in Iraq’s Nineveh province on Tuesday as members of the Yazidi community came together to mark the ceremony with religious rituals.

Several hundred people, who lost at least a loved one to ISIS, gathered in Hardan village in the Yazidi heartland of Shingal, waiting for the start of the exhumation process of six mass graves of people killed by ISIS.

The mass graves contain 131 bodies. The remains of the graves will be exhumed to then be matched with surviving family members based on DNA sampling.

“They have been under the soil for about seven to eight years now, we want them returned to us as soon as they are taken out of the grave,” a mother who is impatiently waiting for the bodies of her children to be identified told Rudaw’s Nasir Ali from the site of the graves. 

Another villager told Rudaw that she believes the remains of her children, brothers-in-law and uncle are in the mass graves.

The exhumation is being carried out by the Iraqi government in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and is overseen by the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD). The remains will be brought to Baghdad for identification.

ISIS took control of large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Iraq’ Yazidis were particularly targeted when the group invaded the religious minority’s heartland of Shingal in 2014, killing around 5,000 Yazidi men, some of which were executed and dumped in mass graves, according to the United Nations. Around 7,000 women and girls, some as young as nine, were enslaved and held in sexual slavery.

The fate of an estimated number of 2,719 Yazidis, who were kidnapped by ISIS, is unknown, according to data from Rescue Kidnapped Yazidis office, which was sent to Rudaw on Tuesday. The office was established by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani for finding and liberating missing Yazidis. 

Hardan village was attacked by the terror group in early August almost eight years ago, kidnapping around 362 Yazidis and 132 of whom remain missing to this day, according to the NGO Yazda.

Exhumation of mass graves began in 2019 in Shingal and then was halted for around one year due to the coronavirus pandemic. It resumed in October of 2020.

Eighty two mass graves have been found in Shingal since ISIS attacked the area, in addition to tens of single graves, according to President Barzani's office.

The remains of 41 Yazidis were laid to rest in Kocho village in early December following a year-long process of identification.