This week representatives from the Library were honoured to attend a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Yezidis in the Houses of Parliament. The meeting included contributions from two survivors of the genocide, Hewan Omer and Khalida Ilyas, who now lead the Free Yezidi Foundation in Iraq, a not-for-profit providing humanitarian and human rights support to Yezidis.
Omer and Ilyas will be in conversation at the Library with the curator of our Genocidal Captivity exhibition, Dr Rebecca Jinks, this Thursday 23 May.
“I bore witness to the horrors inflicted on my people”
Hewan Omer, Country Director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, spoke powerfully about what she witnessed in 2014: ‘Women and girls taken captive, taken into sexual slavery, children recruited as soldiers’. She explained that almost ten years on from ISIS’ atrocities, more than half of the minority Yezidi population live in camps, displaced within their own country. Some are only a couple of hours from their homes, but are unable to return.
Earlier this year the Iraqi government announced plans to close the IDP (internally displaced people) camps by July 2024, but without sufficient support, or infrastructure in the areas destroyed by IS, for those who are meant to leave. While it is disastrous that people have lived under canvas in camps for so long, Omer explained that the reasons they cannot return to their homes are also acute. Educational and medical infrastructure in the areas held by ISIS has not been rebuilt, militias still pose a threat to security, and hatred and prejudice against Yezidis within Iraqi communities remains a constant threat.
“It could happen again”
Over 2,600 Yezidi women and children are still missing. They have not been rescued and returned to their communities despite the fact that in many cases their whereabouts are known. Many families are still awaiting the opening of mass graves so that their loved ones’ remains can be returned to them. This lack of accountability for the crimes perpetrated against the Yezidis, combined with renewed instances of hate speech has led some to fear that another genocide could be imminent. This is further exacerbated by the unstable political situation in Iraq, and lack of strong civil society organisations and institutions.
Within Yezidi society there are also challenges around the return and acceptance of women who bore the children of their captors, with even some humanitarian organisations failing to support them.
Other speakers at the meeting called on the UK government to emulate Germany’s approach to prosecuting perpetrators of atrocities during the genocide, arguing that it is only through justice and accountability that Yezidis will be able to live safely within their country.
On Thursday 23 May we are joined by Hewan Omer and Khalida Ilyas to discuss their experiences and the work of the Free Yezidi Foundation. There will also be a chance to hear from the curator of our Genocidal Captivity exhibition, Dr Rebecca Jinks, and see the exhibition itself before it closes on the 31 May. Sign up to attend here.
