Islamic State Crisis: Yazidi Anger At Iraq's Forgotten People

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Let us not forget what the Yazidis went though and are still going through. Keep your fingers crossed that they get some badly needed help.

24 September 2014 Last updated at 00:15 ET

Islamic State crisis: Yazidi anger at Iraq's forgotten people
By Yolande KnellBBC News, Irbil

Yazidi survivors say women and girls have been trafficked for sex by militants

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When tens of thousands of members of Iraq's Yazidi minority fled from Islamic State (IS) early last month, many were stranded on the barren slopes of Mount Sinjar.

They became the focus of international attention. But now they say the world has forgotten their plight.

Across the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, displaced Yazidi families can be seen living in makeshift camps and half-finished buildings, even under bridges.

Meanwhile, experts say some 4,500 individuals - including about 3,000 women and children - remain in IS hands.

The young women and girls are being treated as spoils of war and trafficked around the region. Only a few have managed to escape.

Adla has just been reunited with her husband at a camp in the town of Zakho. She was taken with others from her village and held for 38 days.

"At first I was taken to a big house in Mosul. It was full of women," says Adla, trembling. "They locked all the windows and doors and surrounded it with guards."

"Every day or two, men would come and make us take off our headscarves so they could choose which of us they wanted. Women were dragged out of the house by their hair."

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BBC News - Islamic State crisis Yazidi anger at Iraq s forgotten people

 

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ISIS enslavin' Yazidis...

UN: Islamic State holds 3,500 slaves in Iraq, mostly Yazidi women and children
Jan. 19, 2016) -- The United Nations estimates the Islamic State has about 3,500 people held as slaves in Iraq who are mostly women and children from the Yazidi Kurdish religious group.

The Islamic State -- also known as ISIS, Daesh and ISIL -- is accused of various international human rights abuses. In some cases, actions by the Islamic State may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and "possibly genocide," according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. "ISIL continued to subject women and children to sexual violence, particularly in the form of sexual slavery," the U.N. report states, adding it "continues to believe that the number of people currently being held in slavery by ISIL numbers approximately 3,500. Those being held are predominantly women and children and come primarily from the Yazidi community, but a number are also from other ethnic and religious minority communities."

The United Nations estimates the Islamic State has about 3,500 people held as slaves in Iraq who are mostly Yazidi women and children captured from Iraq's Kurdistan region. Pictured, an Iraqi refugee girl cleans dishes inside the Khazer refugee camp on the outskirts of Erbil on June 25, 2014. She and others like her from the Kurdistan region escaped capture by the Islamic State, but the UN reports thousands of others have been held as slaves.​

The report also details the civilian death toll amid the Iraqi conflict. The U.N. estimates at least 18,802 civilians have been killed and 36,245 have been wounded between Jan. 1, 2014, and Oct. 31, 2015, in Iraq. About 3.2 million people have become internally displaced, including more than a million school-age children. "The violence suffered by civilians in Iraq remains staggering," the UN writes. "During the reporting period, ISIL killed and abducted scores of civilians, often in a targeted manner. Victims include those perceived to be opposed to ISIL ideology and rule; persons affiliated with the government, such as former Iraqi security forces, police officers, former public officials and electoral workers; professionals, such as doctors and lawyers; journalists; and tribal and religious leaders. "Many have been subjected to adjudication by ISIL self-appointed courts which, in addition to ordering the murder of countless people, have imposed grim punishments such as stoning and amputations," the UN added.

UN: Islamic State holds 3,500 slaves in Iraq, mostly Yazidi women and children

 

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Yazidi Children Rescued From IS Finally Getting Psychological Help...

Yazidi Children Rescued From IS Getting Psychological Help
January 11, 2018 - Dozens of Yazidi children who have been rescued from the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria are now receiving counseling to cope with and recover from the trauma they experienced during their years in captivity.

At Qadiya refugee camp near the Iraqi Kurdistan Region's northern city of Duhok, more than 100 Yazidi boys and girls aged between 4 and 13, who were kidnapped by IS in August 2014, are getting assistance to recover from the psychological harm they sustained under IS control. The children were smuggled out of IS-controlled territories in Iraq and Syria in recent months. Most of the boys were trained by IS to engage in militancy, while many girls were sexually abused.

Ahmed Ameen Koro, 17, center, talks with other children after school in the Esyan Camp for internally displaced people in Dahuk, Iraq, April 13, 2017. Ahmed was among 200 Yazidi boys captured by Islamic State militants and sent to a two-month training camp in Tal Afar.​

Zahid Suhail, 12, is one of the boys who was indoctrinated with IS extremist ideology in Iraq and sent to Syria for military training when he was just 9 years old. "I was first sent to a military camp in Tal Afar for three months and later transferred to a military camp in Mosul," Suhail told VOA. "I received religious training on the Quran, creed, and the main obligations. They later arranged a test, which I passed," he added. While in Mosul, Suhail said, he also was taught Arabic and was prevented from using his native Kurdish language. He is still unable to speak Kurdish. His family and psychiatrists are trying to help him to recover his native tongue. After finishing his religious training, Suhail was sent to the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour, where he was trained for fighting. "Someone called Abu Khatab al-Iraqi took me to Syria. They sent me to a group of [IS] special forces in a military camp near the airport of Deir el-Zour," Suhail said.

'Cubs of the caliphate'

Suhail told VOA that shortly after finishing his military training, he was made a member of a group of IS child recruits known as the "cubs of the caliphate." There is no official data on how many children were schooled and trained by IS since 2014, but human rights organizations estimate the number to be in the thousands. In Iraq, the government's counterterrorism program has listed about 2,000 children as having been potentially influenced or brainwashed by Islamic State ideology. Many of those child recruits died while fighting on behalf of IS in the last year. An IS video released in February 2017 showed two teenage Yazidi brothers purportedly blowing up their explosives-laden vehicles in an attack on Iraqi forces in Mosul. Psychologists at Qadiya refugee camp said Suhail was fortunate to have been smuggled out of Deir el-Zour, because IS fought a losing battle against the Syrian army and its allied forces last October.

Children from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from Islamic State militants Sinjar, Iraq, make their way toward the Syrian border town of Elierbeh​

Now their job is to help him overcome the mental stress and health effects caused by years of IS indoctrination. "They brainwashed him for 3½ years and, in many ways, made him act exactly like one of them," Naeef Jardo, a psychiatrist at the camp, told VOA. "We are working hard to bring him back to normal." Jardo is among several specialists at the camp who are working to help rehabilitate the children. French organization Yahad In-Unum is funding the children's recovery and reintegration process. In addition to psychological counseling, the camp provides several recreational activities and learning programs to help the children learn new skills. Jardo said the younger children have shown a lot of improvement, while those older than 9 might need a longer period of treatment, particularly traumatized girls who were sexually abused.

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