In a recent study based on a number of interviews and testimonies with local Sunnis, Shiites and Turkmen, the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) concludes that some form of accountability and trials are necessary in order for the region to move on after ISIS.
Some believe that local residents could get along despite all the hardship they have endured in recent years, but they fear that forces newly arrived in the area might be less forgiving.
“Our main worry is that the Shiites in the Hashd al-Shaabi [PMU] are not from Tal Afar, but from areas in the south of Iraq… The Shiite people from Tal Afar know they have a future stake in Tal Afar, so they would not think of any revenge acts because in the future Sunnis might do the same. But people from outside do not think that way and that is worrying us,” the MERI report quotes a local Sunni council member.
One Shiite IDP in Duhok warns against tribes taking matters into their own hands and using tribal laws to rectify the past.
“Compensation should be the remit of the government and the tribal system should not intervene at all. The procedure requires field visits, an investigation, documentation and financial resources that the tribes do not have. It is something purely related to the role of the government,” one Shiite IDP in Duhok told MERI.
According to the MERI report, most locals prefer the establishment of a special court charged with investigating and persecuting crimes committed during the war against ISIS.
“Judges don’t need to be exclusively from Tal Afar, but we need some sort of neutral third-party. International supervision would be the best, and members in charge of any committee cannot be appointed by either Haider al-Abadi or Atheel Nujaifi [former governor of Nineveh]. The international community should appoint them,” one Shiite activist told MERI.
Shiites and Sunnis interviewed by MERI said those who joined ISIS under duress or didn’t get involved with killing people should be treated differently.
Still, defining a starting point for the prosecution of certain crimes remains a sticking point.
“Do you think that the only criminals in this are the ones who joined IS? There are so many who wear the outfit of the security forces and kill people without justification. What about them? Aren’t they criminals all the same?,” asked one Sunni.
ISIS took control of Tal Afar in June, 2014, displacing 500,000 people from the district, according to a 2014 study from the REACH Initiative.
In addition to intra-Turkmen reconciliation is the need for “improving Yezidi-Turkmen relations.”
“We asked the provincial council to convene a meeting between us and them to discuss their views and what happened to us as well, because we need to show how victimised we are. IS does not represent Sunnis or Islam and this message has to be conveyed to the Eyzidis as well,” said a Sunni local council member.
MERI argues that addressing deep-seated grievances is vital for the safe return of locals to their homes.
“Safe return for displaced people from Tal Afar is not deemed possible without addressing some of the divisions and deep-seated distrust currently characterising the relationship between the Sunni and Shia Turkmen communities in Tal Afar,” the report states.
