WASHINGTON DC—Kurdish Yezidi parliamentarian Vian Dakhil is in the United States to lobby for the plight of her people, seeking recognition for the massacre of Yezidis by Islamist militants as genocide.
“We are trying to add the Yezidi case to the other cases and give weight to them as whole for recognition as genocide in the US Congress,” Dakhil told Rudaw.
Dakhil, who drew international attention to the situation of Yezidis under attack with her impassioned speech in the Iraqi parliament last summer, urged the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, human rights and women’s organizations to assist and protect the Yezidi community.
“We come here today to ask for your help,” she told her Washington audience. “The Christians in Iraq and elsewhere have a powerful lobby. They have the strong support of the European nations and the Vatican. Many are being offered political asylum. We, the Yezidis, are a small minority. We do not have advocates. I ask for your compassion and support,”
Hundreds of Yezidis were killed and thousands more were taken captive by Islamic State (ISIS) militants who attacked the town of Shingal and its surrounding villages in August.
The plight of Yezidis prompted international humanitarian relief followed by airstrikes against the radical group.
“We have 1,200 families who are still stranded on Mount Shingal and nothing can be delivered to them,” said Dakhil. “No food, clothes or blankets. They are in a dire condition.”
“On the one hand they are surrounded by ISIS and on the other by a bad humanitarian condition,” she added. “There is no medical care for them."
In meetings with US Senators, State Department and Whitehouse officials Dakhil said that the Iraqi government hasn’t provided much assistance to the thousands of Yezidis uprooted by the ISIS attack.
“The Iraqi government has provided three helicopters, but they work whenever they like,” she explained. “They don't fly when there is rain and sometimes there is no fuel to operate the helicopters.”
Dakhil said that US senators have promised to write to the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and ask him to rescue the stranded Yezidis on Mount Shingal.
She said that despite financial constraints, the Kurdish government has maintained a lifeline to the Yezidis.
“The KRG has not received its budget share from Baghdad and still takes care of all the people who have come there by the little money it has,” she said. “In addition, it sends lots of assistance to the refugees on Mount Shingal from its own treasury.”
Dakhil hoped to add the massacre of Yezidis to the case of the Halabja gas attack, the Anfal campaign and disappearance of the Barzani families currently awaiting recognition by the US congress.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment