“The Iraqi government and the Kurdistan government are saying this mumbo jumbo that the Yezidis will go back to their homes soon. They know that’s not true. This is a political lie,” said Amy Beam, author of ‘The Last Yezidi Genocide.’
“Both the KRG government and the Baghdad government are responsible and guilty of telling this lie that it’s safe to go back. It’s not safe to go back.”
Beam, whose new book documents hundreds of testimonies by Yezidi survivors of the ISIS genocide, says none of the people she interviewed want to return to Shingal.
“They do not want to go back and live at the site of the genocide. That would be like asking the Jews after WWII, the survivors, to go back and live in Auschwitz. It’s inconceivable that they’d go back and live in the site of the genocide,” she added.
If Western states offering Yezidis asylum and treatment believe Shingal is safe, they will begin deporting them back to Iraq, Beam warns.
“As long as the voices of Yezidis are silenced and the governments get away with saying it’s safe to return to Shingal, we’ll close the camps soon and everyone can go home, and asylum boards in Britain and Germany both swallow this lie and are trying to deport them back to Iraq, as long as the story is silenced, that lie gets trotted around the world,” said Beam.
Amy Beam was enjoying her retirement in southeast Turkey managing a tourism business when news broke of Yezidis fleeing over the Shingal mountains on August 3, 2014.
“Like the rest of the world, I said, ‘What’s a Yezidi?’ I didn’t know. I’d never heard of a Yezidi,” said Beam, who now lives in Duhok.
Four years on, and hundreds of Yezidi testimonies later, Beam has published a book preserving the verbal evidence of what only a handful of countries have officially recognized as “genocide”.
“I started writing this book really from the first day in 2014, when I started publishing articles,” she said.
“There is no good, collective mechanism on the internet to save news stories. So I understood that I needed to collect it in a book and find a way to maintain and institutionalize it for history, for beyond my lifetime,” she added.
‘The Last Yezidi Genocide’ documents Beam’s own experiences living among the minority group while sharing the full testimonies of witnesses and survivors across Iraq and Syria caught up in the ISIS reign of terror.
“I call it ‘The Last’ because this genocide really did finish off the population of Yezidis, which was already below a half a million, about 400,000, in the Shingal region,” she explained. “There used to be 23 million Yezidis in Mesopotamia.”
Hundreds of Yezidis fled abroad to Western states through specialized programs created for female ISIS survivors. However, the schemes have separated families — male relatives over the age of 18 are barred from joining them, Beam said.
She began documenting survivors’ testimonies, particularly those of women who had escaped rape and torture by their captors, with the help of Kurdish friends.
Beam then began helping the female victims through the tedious immigration process, applying for passports, and getting them approved by governments taking in survivors.
She estimates she has helped more than 700 Yezidis secure official documents and passports for foreign travel – many of them leaving for Canada, America, Germany, and Australia.
“These immigration programs are still set up for survivors who were captured and raped,” Beam said. “This does not address the issue of 300,000 Yezidis who are traumatized who cannot go back [to Shingal] and cannot get asylum. They’re living in tents. This book is really for them.”
Conditions in Yezidi IDP camps are harsh, with frequent flooding, fires, bitterly cold winters and searing hot summers, made worse by the limited electricity supply. There have been cases of suicide.
Every Yezidi whom Beam interviewed wants to leave Iraq. Vian Havin, the first survivor Beam met, said this was her top priority.
“ ‘What is it you need now? What is it that you most need right now that I can help you with?’ ” Beam asked Havin. “She said, “I don’t need a house, I don’t need money, I don’t need a car. I am with my family now. I am safe here in this caravan. The only thing I need is to leave this country for good. I need to leave Iraq.”
“They can’t get out of this country. They all want out, 100 percent want out.”
Even if the Yezidis wanted to return to Shingal, the area is wracked by economic problems and damaged infrastructure. Explosive remnants and booby-traps still litter the landscape.
“Since January, there has been maybe a dozen people killed opening the doors to their homes in five different villages on the south side of Shingal Mountain,” Beam said.
“Right now, the Yezidis psychologically and physically are not safe going back to their homes. They cannot go back. There’s no water, there’s no electric, the roads are bombed, there’s no people, there’s no shops, there’s no economy, there’s no way to make money.”
She has witnessed the devastation first hand – houses burned or blown up, copper wiring stripped, power lines destroyed for miles and miles. She has even walked through fields of bones – the grisly remains of massacres.
Erbil and Baghdad are lying to the international community, telling them Shingal is safe and that Yezidis can return, she says. As a result, asylum schemes are being dropped and Yezidis returned against their will.
“My goal is raising awareness of the severity of the problem. That it’s not going away. That it’s actually worse,” she said.
The KRG does not deem Shingal safe to return.
“There are various armed forces there and people are scared to return. They fear the Arabs in the area may help an ISIS comeback. In charge of Sinjar are Iraqi troops and Hashd al-Shaabi,” said Edan Sheikh Kalo, the manager for Yezidi Affairs in Duhok.
The Hashd al-Shaabi has incorporated some Yezidis and the Shingal Protection Units (YBS) are backed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). KRG Peshmerga and Zeravani forces have a limited presence, as does the Iraqi Army.
Kalo noted that the road from Duhok to Sinjar remains dangerous.
"The political situation in Sinjar isn't stable yet and there are dangers and risks along the road from Sinjar to Kurdistan,” he said.
Iraq’s federal forces assumed the security portfolio in October 2017 after their takeover of all disputed or Kurdistani areas claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil.
“Some government institutions have reopened there but due to the dangerous roads to and from Sinjar and especially around Mosul most people hesitate to return,” said Kalo.
Shingal is in Nineveh province; however the local provincial official responsible for Yezidi affairs was not available for comment.
Between 2,500 and 5,000 Yezidis are thought to have been killed by ISIS when the group swept into Shingal in 2014. A documented 6,417 Yezidis were taken captive. Just 3,255 have been released.
Around 200,000 – about half of Iraq’s Yezidi population – fled to the Kurdistan Region or Syria in 2014. Eighty to 85 percent still live in camps, primarily in Duhok province.
Baghdad and Erbil must also settle the question of disputed territories and their shared budget before they can properly assist the Yezidis, whether it is to help rebuild Shingal or provide more adequate long-term housing for a community that feels it has been neglected and forgotten.
