Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

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Yazidi Leaders Seek Help Against ISIS

A delegation of top Yazidi religious and cultural leaders came to the US this week (October 24-31) seeking help for their community in Iraq, which has been devastated by ISIS extremists. ISIS considers the ancient religious minority to be pagan. More than 300,000 Yazidis have been driven from their homes and need humanitarian aid. In addition, the delegation says it has documented nearly 7,000 names of Yazidi girls and young women who have been kidnapped by ISIS and forced into sexual enslavement.

The delegation met with a variety of American political and religious leaders. Watch excerpts of interviews about the Yazidi crisis with Matthew Barber, a University of Chicago scholar who recently lived in Iraq, and Murad Ismael, a Yazidi human rights advocate. Managing editor Kim Lawton interviewed them after a meeting organized by the International Association for Human Values, founded by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Interview with MATTHEW BARBER and MURAD ISMAEL

MATTHEW BARBER (University of Chicago): In under two days, over 300,000 Yazidi people were displaced from the Sinjar Mountains. As those people began to stream into the area where I was living, I recorded a lot of stories from survivors about what they had witnessed and what they had seen. The suffering that people recounted for me was really unbelievable, killing that they saw in the streets, fleeing and being separated from their families, not knowing where their relatives were.

MURAD ISMAEL (Yazidi Human Rights Advocate): A people that is more than 4,000 years old, being subject to religious persecution for no reason, only for their religious beliefs, and they are being persecuted on that identity. Our women, our children and men were defenseless, and we became victims of one of the largest, one of the largest atrocities of the modern world.

MATTHEW BARBER: The Yazidis are a very special religious community because they’re one of the only remaining religions in the Middle East with non-Abrahamic origins. The Yazidi religion has absorbed elements from many religious traditions in the Near East, but within their religious framework, are preserved some very ancient beliefs that no longer survive in any other religion. The reason that ISIS attacks the Yazidi community in this way is because they view them as pagan and polytheistic because they’re outside of the Abrahamic religions that have a written scripture. The Yazidis having an oral tradition, they have oral tradition and hymns, the fact that they have been accused unjustly of being devil worshippers, all of this constitutes an idea about them that serves as the justification that ISIS uses to attack the community in this way. They’re seen as outside the Islamic category People of the Book, which, from an Islamic perspective, applied to a limited number of minorities that had a limited number of rights and protections within an Islamic state system.

MURAD ISMAEL: We knew there were hatred against us, but we did not know it would be to this extent, that people would see us not as human beings. The very people that we co-existed with for thousands of years, shared the same community, visited each other, were friends. We never thought that people would turn on us and would put the guns on our heads and the heads of our children and our women and our girls.

MATTHEW BARBER: Upon the initial attack, even before ISIS had reached the city itself, as Yazidi civilians were trying to flee in their cars, they were stopped by the ISIS jihadists who would pull the families out of the car, first determine what their religion was. If they were Sunni Muslim, they were told to return to the city. But if they were Yazidi, the men were separated from the women, the women were loaded into trucks, and they were carried off. So it was a premeditated, sexually motivated campaign to enslave large numbers of women.

MURAD ISMAEL: They’ve taken about 7,000 Yazidi hostages. I was on the phone when two Yazidi women committed suicide because there were people outside trying to buy them for hundreds of dollars. I have a picture of an 11 years Yazidi girl who’s being forced to enslavement to a terrorist who is 70 years old. That Yazidi child can be your child.

MATTHEW BARBER: ISIS released a public document, an article explaining the rationale behind their slavery project. They proudly declared that they were reviving the institution of slavery that they believe never should have fallen into disuse. And they’re conducting the program according to their interpretation of early Islamic slavery norms. They actually believe that slavery is a healthy, spiritual institution because it prevents men from committing sexual sins. By having a sexual alternative to wives that men can sleep with, they won’t be tempted to sleep with maids or other women and therefore, they remain sexually pure. The Yazidi delegation that’s visiting Washington this week is asking the USgovernment to take action to help free those women quickly.

MURAD ISMAEL: We still have thousands in places that can be rescued, so we still have hope. As a human society, we can’t close our eyes on this problem. I know the Middle East is burning. I know that. We are tired of wars. I know we are tired of getting involved in any other conflict. But we must get involved when the problem touched the lives of a half million people, a peaceful minority, a minority that worked for peace throughout our history, a minority that supported the modern world. We deserve, we deserve peace. We deserve to exist in our land.

MATTHEW BARBER: ISIS believes that Yazidis should no longer exist within what they call “Muslim lands.” ISIS actually stated in their public document about their slavery project that God will hold Muslims accountable for allowing the Yazidis to have remained in the Middle East for this long. That the area that they call “Muslim lands” should not be home to a polytheistic, pagan group that’s outside of the Abrahamic, monotheistic trajectory.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethi ... sis/24482/

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Some of the Yazidi refugees from Shengal

Many Yazidis - who are now homless - are living without any shelter in the parks of Batman and other such places

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Breitbart

1,000 Yazidi Families Still Under Siege By ISIS On Mount Sinjar

More than 1,000 Yazidi families are trapped on Mount Sinjar and therefore still under attack by ISIS.

According to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), the families "have registered for aid" and "there is a critical shortage of food."

One Yazidi who spoke with AINA from Mount Sinjar via telephone said the situation is very tense. He said "when aid comes it is dropped in one area but the families are not able to reach it." He said fathers are not willing to leave their families to reach the aid, for fear of what might happen to their families while they are gone.

The witness said there are daily attacks by ISIS and that three Christian families "living on the Yazidi area" had been captured by ISIS, taken to Telafar, and forced to convert to Islam.

In August Breitbart News reported President Obama authorized the use of airstrikes to save what were, at that time, tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar by ISIS fighters. The airstrikes allowed many of the Yazidis to escape, but even then it was known that thousands more remained trapped--cornered on Mount Sinjar by ISIS forces.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014 ... unt-Sinjar

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The Daily Beast

Yazidis Face Genocide by ISIS After U.S. Turns Away

Months after the president stepped in to save the Yazidis from genocide, the airstrikes have slowed to a trickle. Supplies have dried up. And ISIS is closing in on Mount Sinjar again.

In August, the Obama administration intervened to stop what it called a pending genocide of Yazidi minorities in Iraq. Now the U.S. is gone, but the genocide continues.

Thousands of Yazidis remain stranded and starving on Mount Sinjar while thousands more have been sold off into slavery by ISIS, according to Yazidi leaders, several of whom are in Washington to beg for urgent assistance.

When President Obama announced U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq in early August, he said the mission was twofold: to protect U.S. personnel in Erbil and to save the ethnic Yazidis from ISIS, who had fled from their villages, chased by ISIS, and were stranded on the mountain with no food, no supplies, and no protection.

“People are starving. And children are dying of thirst. Meanwhile, ISIL forces below have called for the systematic destruction of the entire Yazidi people, which would constitute genocide,” said Obama. “And when we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then I believe the United States of America cannot turn a blind eye. We can act, carefully and responsibly, to prevent a potential act of genocide. That’s what we’re doing on that mountain.”

At first, international airstrikes and humanitarian airdrops somewhat alleviated the Yazidi crisis and opened up an escape corridor for many Yazidis to flee. But in October, the United States turned to other parts of the battle, leaving the Yazidis largely to fend for themselves. ISIS has now surrounded Mount Sinjar again, trapping approximately 10,000 Yazidis there. Meanwhile, ISIS forces are taking over Yazidi villages near the mountain one after another, killing the men and selling the women and children into the slave trade.

“The Yazidis are trapped on the mountain, surrounded by ISIS, and there is no pathway to reach them,” Nuri Khalaf Elias, leader of the Hababa tribe in Sinjar, told The Daily Beast. “There is a shortage of food, there is little aid, and they are in a dire situation.”

Elias is part of a large delegation of Yazidi leaders who came to Washington last week, led by Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail, the leader of the Yazidi Supreme Religious Council. They met with senior White House and State Department officials and pleaded for the U.S. government and the U.S. military to turn their attention back to the Yazidi crisis. The delegation met with, among others, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Sarah Sewall, and Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, who leads the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

“We thank President Obama because he started the operation, but we were expecting he would not stop until clearing the area of ISIS.”

“Our hostages, children, women, and girls, between 4,000 and 5,000 of them, have been captured by ISIS and sent to other areas. We need help to rescue these hostages,” said Sameer Karto Babasheikh, the son of the Yazidi Supreme Religious Council leader. “In Mosul, they opened a market to sell Yazidi girls. Some of them ended up in Fallujah, some of them were taken to Saudi Arabia and Raqqa in Syria.”

On the mountain, between 6,000 and 7,000 civilians and between 2,000 and 3,000 Yazidi fighters are still trapped and struggling to stay alive, cut off from any supply routes, the Yazidi leaders said. Since the airstrikes trailed off to a trickle in October, ISIS has taken over the five remaining Yazidi towns near Mount Sinjar, killing hundreds of civilians and abducting hundreds more.

Even the humanitarian airdrops have halted. The Iraqi government provided two helicopters to deliver aid, but they are old and fly only once or twice a week, Babasheikh said. About 100 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are on the mountain, he added, but they don’t engage ISIS. The extremist group continues to fight to take the mountain once and for all, and the situation on Mount Sinjar could go from dire to catastrophic within a couple of weeks, the Yazidi leaders said.

“President Obama promised that they are not going to let ISIS get any more land, that they are not going to let them get another genocide on the Yazidis. But this is going to be worse than in August,” said Kamal Elias, a Yazidi activist who is part of the delegation. “If ISIS gets to the mountain, all of these people are going to be slaughtered, and then it’s going to take years for the U.S. or anyone else to get them out of the mountain.”

For the Yazidis, this ISIS attack is only the latest in a long history of Sunni Iraqi attempts to drive the Yazidis from their land and extinguish their religion in Iraq.

“Most of the ISIS members are from the towns around ISIS,” he said. “They were our neighbors. We lived with them for hundreds of years. Now all of a sudden they are ISIS. They joined ISIS.”

The Yazidis blame several parties for their plight. They blame the government of Iraq for not protecting them for years, they blame the Kurdish forces for fleeing Mount Sinjar without fighting ISIS this summer, and they blame the United States for starting the air war against ISIS and then appearing to lose interest, giving ISIS the idea that it can act against the Yazidis with impunity.

“We thank President Obama because he started the operation, but we were expecting he would not stop until clearing the area of ISIS,” said Ali Khalaf, a Yazidi dentist from Iraq who now lives in Germany.

American officials all promised the Yazidis during their visit that they would make their humanitarian crisis a priority for the U.S. government in the context of its strategy to fight ISIS and overall policy toward Iraq. But officials gave the delegation no specific commitments and made no concrete promises of increased U.S. assistance.

“Mr. Rhodes reiterated the United States’ commitment to the safety and security of the Yezidi community within a unified and pluralistic Iraq,” the White House said in a statement after Rhodes met with the Yazidi delegation, using an alternate spelling for the community. “He noted the recent positive steps in the formation of an Iraqi government under the leadership of Prime Minister Abadi and stressed continued U.S. support for the development of a national program in Iraq that addresses the interests and desires of all its communities. He pledged continued humanitarian assistance for those who have been displaced inside Iraq, including the Yezidi population, and expressed our determination to provide support for Yezidi women and girls who have faced terrible abuse from ISIL.”

Asked if he believed the White House’s statements of continued support, Khalaf said: “We have to believe the U.S. will come to help us. There’s no other option.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... -away.html

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THE PRICE OF HUMAN MISERY

THE FULL ISIS PRICE LIST FOR SLAVES

A woman aged 40 to 50 - 50,000 dinars (£27)

A woman aged 30 to 40 - 75,000 dinars (£40)

A woman aged 20 to 30 - 100,000 dinars (£53)

A girl, aged 10 to 20 - 150,000 dinars (£80)

A child under nine - 200,000 dinars (£106)

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BAS NEWS

Yazidi Leader: Barzani Has Promised to Free Sinjar
Armanj Niroyi

The religious leader of Kurdish Yazidi minority has said that Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has promised them to free Sinjar as soon as possible.

In an exclusive interview with BasNews, Baba Sheikh, the religious leader of the Yazidis in Belgium Capital Brussels said that he prays for all Kurds around the world to be united and together hand in hand fight the extremist groups.

The Yazidi leader acknowledges the efforts of Kurdish government for the Yazidi refugees, despite huge influx of refugees coming to the region in recent years.

“KRG has done all they can, but the refugees are not one or two, they are thousands and they are every where in the region and people around Kurdistan has helped them whenever they can’, said Baba Sheikh.

However the Yazidi leader says that the Yazidi refugees are in a bad condition with and it may get worse with winter coming.

He also said that he’s visit to Europe is to meet EU senior officials and talk about the current situation of his people in Kurdistan Region and northern Iraq.

Since the Sinjar take over by the Islamic State militant in August, thousands of Yazidi people have fled in to Kurdistan region and thousands more have been kidnapped by the extremist group.

http://basnews.com/en/News/Details/Yazi ... njar/41325

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The temperature in South England went down to freezing last night

but I have a home and central heating

The temperature in Sinjar went down to 14c last night

but most of the Yazidis on the mountain have no shelter

they do not have enough food to eat

they cannot keep dry when it rains

often the Yazidis in camps only have thin tents to protect them

they also cannot keep dry

their tents are not weatherproof

the entrance to the tents is at ground level

during heavy rain the water goes inside the tents

every becomes wet even bedding

they are surrounded by a sea of mud

The temperature will fall to below freezing

the winds will become stronger

the rain will become heavier

it will snow

I will turn my central heating up

THE YAZIDIS WILL DIE

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There are more than 3,000 Ezidi children are on Mount Sinjar without

proper shelter or even basic tents - they have very little food or water

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That was what they looked over 2 years ago

This is what they look like now

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This lovely little Ezidi (Yazidi) girl is one of the many

thousands of children abducted by the Islamic State

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Photo of Yezide recruits to the Iraqi Levies, with their distinctive plaited hair, in 1942.

Ezidi have lived in Shingal for many thousands of years, now they are being slaughtered

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More than 1,000 Yazidi families

9,000 innocent Yazidi civilians

are trapped on Mount Sinjar

Many are children

Many are old

Many are sick

MANY WILL DIE

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