Eighth Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide / Alannah Travers

Eighth Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide

Published on 3rd August 2022

The real impact of politics? At today's Free Yezidi Foundation and Sinjar Academy event in Khanke, family members and officials mourned for the lives destroyed by the Yazidi genocide, eight years ago. Down the hill, 20,000 survivors live in sweltering tents, still; just one camp housing the hundreds of thousands of displaced. For them, life goes on.

Frustrating and cruel in equal measure, Iraq's Yazidi Survivors' Law is yet to get assistance to those who most desperately need it; the legislation remains unfunded due to BS political games and ongoing chaos in Baghdad prolonging the passing of a new budget (see latest Sadr news...).

Credit: Alannah Travers

The Sinjar agreement is an empty shell of stability that has not yet been fully implemented. Just this morning there were unconfirmed reports of an exploded car in the Yazidi community's homeland.

Credit: Alannah Travers

According to the Kurdistan Regional Government, over 2,700 Yazidis are still missing; unaccounted for, maybe dead, perhaps still held captive by ISIS members, possibly living another life in Syria or beyond. One family I've become close to have lost all hope in the authorities to help them track down their missing parents and siblings. I couldn't face visiting them today.

In short, Yazidis appear to again be at the bottom of the country's priorities. Despite warm words from UNITAD and UNAMI etc, pledging to achieve justice, the pain and lack of agency was clear in the Khanke centre, alongside the repetitiveness of the narrative. Last year saw small steps of progress - continued mass grave excavations, the first conviction of a crime of genocide in a German court in Frankfurt - but the impact on most people's daily existence is limited.

Mahdi Murad read to us his poem on the Yazidi youth after the genocide. "We have lived eight years as if they were one day," he said. "We all became orphans after August 3, we don't want to live a jungle life where the strong eat the weak... the young have lost years of their life." Outside, as things wrapped up, Nishwan (14) and Zidan (17) shyly explained the meaning behind their haunting artwork in touching detail. What struck me most is how important having hope is to healing. I hope things change soon, because there is not much hope in Iraq currently.