The Yazidi Party for Democracy and Freedom (PADÊ), Yazidi Women’s Freedom Movement (TAJÊ), Shengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly and Shengal Temporary Administration Assembly made a joint statement in Khanasor.

The statement, read by Shengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly Co-president Hisên Heci, said the following;

“DAESH gangs carried out savage attacks against Yazidis in Shengal and Nineveh on 3 August 2014. Thousands of gangs coming from Iraq and Syria attacked our people and carried out great massacres. DAESH gangs massacred thousands of Yazidi civilians and took many more prisoners. They seized people’s properties and looted their homes. They bombed our sacred sites and destroyed thousands of animals. The silence of international communities and of the Iraqi government, caused the DAESH mercenaries to get even more brutal. They tortured our women, youth and children. Women and men were separated and taken to different places. Boys over 13 were murdered while those younger were recruited as soldiers and given ideological and military training. Girls and women were sold in markets.

5 years after the genocide, thousands of Yazidi women and youth still remained in the captivity of DAESH mercenaries. We call upon the Iraqi government, international communities, the Iraqi judiciary and North-East Syria Administration to try the perpetrators of these genocides in accordance with the Iraqi laws and pay compensation to the victims.”

The institutions of Shengal highlighted the following demands from the Iraqi government, North-East Syria Administration and the International Coalition;

An international court should be set up for the trial of the criminals and their partners in crime,

A delegation of Yazidis and families of victims should be present in the court,

The mercenaries engaged in crimes in Iraq should be tried at the Iraqi court.”