Petitioning United Nations Protect Yezidis

[Piling]

Petitioning United Nations
Protect Yezidis in their Kurdish Homeland

You will already be aware of the terrible plight of the Christians and Shi’ites of Northern Iraq following the occupation of Mosul by Islamic State (IS) forces. We would like to draw your attention to the parallel, and potentially even more disastrous, fate faced by the small Yezidi community after the IS capture this weekend of the town of Sinjar. Two hundred thousand people, mainly Yezidis have fled their homes.

The Yezidi religion is an offshoot of ancient Iranian beliefs, with later Islamic and Christian influences. Once widespread across the region, they now flourish only in Sinjar and Sheikhan where their holiest site of Lalesh is located. Yezidis have long lived in harmony with their neighbours, but for IS they are not ‘People of the Book;’ they are sometimes wrongly thought to be 'devil-worshippers' and thus have been singled out for particularly violent oppression and murder.

Yezidis have been protected in recent years by the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) and its peshmerga forces, but their retreat before IS leaves the Yezidis exposed to forced conversion or death, and their sacred shrines subject to certain destruction. Thus a unique, ancient religion could face extinction in its homeland in the coming weeks. Given the current situation even genocide cannot be excluded.

We call on the policymakers of all Western Nations, and on all concerned NGOs, to take all possible measures to assure the survival of the Yezidi community in its ancient homeland, and to channel all possible humanitarian aid to the KRG.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/u ... h-homeland

Philip Kreyenbroek is one of the best scholars devoted since decades to Yezidi Studies. His heart should be broken, now.

[Anthea]

BBC News

UN alarm over fate of Iraqi Yazidi children

The UN children's agency has expressed "extreme concern" over reports that 40 children from Iraq's Yazidi minority died after an offensive by jihadists.

Unicef says reports indicate the children died as a "direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration" over the past two days.

Thousands of Yazidis fled into the mountains after the Islamic State (IS) overran the town of Sinjar on Sunday.

Yazidis follow an ancient faith that jihadists condemn as devil worship.

"Families who fled the area are in immediate need of urgent assistance, including up to 25,000 children who are now stranded in mountains surrounding Sinjar and are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including drinking water and sanitation services," Unicef said.

BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says the Unicef statement goes some way towards confirming some of the most disturbing reports coming out of the heartland of the Yazidi community.

Images posted on the internet showed small clusters of people gathered on the sides of a canyon in the Sinjar mountains.

There have been unconfirmed reports of massacres in Yazidi villages by the jihadists, our correspondent adds.

Jawhar Ali Begg, a spokesman for the Yazidi community, said on Monday that after overrunning Sinjar, IS (formerly known as Isis) had given them an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death.

Who are the Yazidis?

Religious sect found in northern Iraq, Syria and the Caucasus
Religion incorporates elements of many faiths, including Zoroastrianism
Principal divine figure, Malak Taus (Peacock Angel), is the supreme angel of the seven angels who ruled the universe after it was created by God
Many Muslims and other groups view Yazidis as devil worshippers
There are estimated to be around 500,000 Yazidis worldwide, most living in Iraq's Nineveh plains
In August 2007 jihadists attacked Yazidi villages in Nineveh, killing between 400 and 700 people


Full Article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28663926

[Anthea]

The capture of one of the towns, Sinjar, home to many of Iraq's Yazidi minority sect, is leading to fears of a major humanitarian crisis.

Yazidis, who are followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are at high risk of being executed because they are viewed by the Islamic State militants as infidels.

Yawar said 50,000 Yazidis now hiding on a mountain risked starving to death if they were not rescued within 24 hours.

"Urgent international action is needed to save them. Many of them, mainly the elderly, children and pregnant women, have [already] died," he said.

"We can't stop the Islamic State from attacking the people on the mountain because there is one paved road leading up to the mountain and it can be used by them. They are trying to get to that road."

A Yazidi lawmaker broke down in tears during a parliamentary session on Tuesday as she urged the government and the international community to save her community from being massacred or starved into extinction.

"Over the past 48 hours, 30,000 families have been besieged in the Sinjar mountains, with no water and no food," said Vian Dakhil.

"We are being slaughtered; our entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth. I am begging you, in the name of humanity."

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