Iraq’s Yazidis wary of returning home under Baghdad plan
The Yazidis of northern Iraq, an ancient religious minority persecuted by ISIS, want nothing more than peace and security in their home town of Sinjar – but they want it on their terms.
Many there distrust a new security and reconstruction plan unveiled this week by Baghdad and the Kurdish regional authorities.
“The deal could pacify Sinjar – but it might also make the situation even worse,” said Talal Saleh, a Yazidi exile in nearby Kurdistan.
The Yazidis have suffered since ISIS took Sinjar in 2014, one of the extremist group’s conquests that shocked the West into action.
ISIS viewed the Yazidis as heretics and slaughtered more than 3,000 of them, enslaving 7,000 women and girls and displacing most of the 550,000 population.
Since ISIS was driven out of Sinjar by US-backed Kurdish forces in 2015, the town and its surrounding areas are controlled by a patchwork of armed groups including the Iraqi army, Shiite militias and Yazidi and Kurdish fighters with different loyalties.
“There are about six political groups in Sinjar now. Brothers belonging to the same family each join different parties,” said Akram Rasho, another displaced Yazidi in Kurdistan.
The government plan would enforce security and allow the return of tens of thousands of Yazidis afraid to go back because of a lack of security and basic services, according to the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi.
But many Sinjar natives feel the plan is vague, dictated by Baghdad and the Kurdish capital of Erbil. They say it has not included them and entails security reforms that could mean more division and violence.
“The PKK and their Yazidi allies are not just going to leave Sinjar without a fight,” Mr Saleh said.
The security arrangements include booting out the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has fought a long insurgency in Turkey and bases itself in northern Iraq.
At a protest against the deal in Sinjar yesterday, Yazidi leader Shamo Khadida shouted: “Sinjar belongs to its people and we are the people.”
Others distance themselves from politics and simply want to see the delivery of services.
“If actual efforts are made to improve our situation, the people of Sinjar will find agreement,” Mr Rasho said.