Yazidis’ plight goes unchecked

MOU N T SINJA R, IR AQ • The lights of their towns, controlled by jihadists, twinkle beneath them in the moonlight. The people on the mountain can see their villages, and the headlights of the jihadi patrols snaking through the streets they have abandoned, and know they cannot return.

Small campfires light up the mountainside, stretching toward the Syrian border just visible in the distance, where thousands of Yazidis are searching desperately for sleep, food and water.

As the sun rises, the sound of fighter jets can be heard overhead. Any thought they might bring some kind of salvation disappears as they roar off into the distance. They are protecting the front lines in the Kurdish capital Erbil.

The homes of these thousands of people, remnants of an ancient sect driven out by the

We are the same as animals. We are reduced to eating raw meat

Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham (ISIS), are lost and will not be recovered any time soon.

On the mountain, as dawn rises, no one knows when aid is coming today, or whether any is coming at all.

Another day of temperatures above 40C and too little water to drink is beginning.

There are thousands of impoverished people sleeping on the ground, speckled with the jagged rocks that smashed so many of the airdropped water bottles. A Red Crescent official says 40% to 50% of the supplies thrown out of U.S. Air Force supply planes were destroyed on impact.

The only water is in troughs left out for the goats that roam the mountain, filthy and full of droppings — good enough to be boiled for a small cup of tea, but not to sustain the elderly and the children.

“The most important problem here is diarrhea, particularly with the children,” said Hussein Marqat, 52, a doctor from Sinjar General Hospital, a Muslim Arab, not a Yazidi, who accompanied the refugees.

Another doctor, Aras Abdul, among volunteers flown in by the Iraqi army’s helicopters, said rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea in children, was common. He estimated hundreds had already died.

The only food is undercooked or raw meat from the goats, plus whatever can be scrounged from the aid drops. There is too little firewood to cook properly.

“We are the same as animals,” said Thasen Khaleh, 35. “We are reduced to eating raw meat.”

The Yazidis’ ordeal began Aug. 4, when ISIS descended on the towns and villages surrounding Sinjar.

Residents described 24 hours of mayhem as the jihadists trawled the streets. Some local men tried to fight back, with what few weapons and little ammunition they could find. It was to no avail. Thousands immediately fled. Many of those who stayed were killed.

“When they came to the neighbourhood of Solah the people started to run to the caves. ISIS caught some and said they wouldn’t kill them,” said Khero Gaffal, 44.

“But they put 60 people in a line and shot them one by one. They made a big hole with shovels and put them there.”

It is hard to confirm the stories of mass killings and kidnapping women. With poor communications, rumours circulate freely and numbers are vague.

But what Mr. Gaffal saw was roughly verified by a separate family from Solah.

“They killed my uncle,” said Dakhil Samir, 35. “I saw his body — that is why I came here. He was one of 48 bodies I saw in a mass grave.”

In Kojo, residents said they had been given until Thursday to convert to Islam. “No one has been killed yet,” said one man who was too scared to give his name.

“If we know we cannot save our families, we will kill ourselves,” said Hussein Khader Kaskay, 50. The crowd around him shouted their assent. The Yazidis are ethnic Kurds and their faith was founded by a sheikh in the 12th century, borrowing from the pre-Islamic Persian religion of Zoroastrianism as well as Christianity and Islam. Estimates of the Yazidis’ numbers vary from 50,000 to 700,000, with several focusing on the range between 200,000 and 300,000 and they are spread across northern Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Like other minority religions of the region, it is not possible to convert to Yazidism, and marriage with outsiders is not permitted. The Yazidis believe in reincarnation and perform baptisms with consecrated water as well as circumcisions and animal sacrifices, according to a study by Christine Allison, professor of Kurdish studies at Exeter University in Britain. There are prohibitions against eating pumpkin, fish and lettuce, which is considered unclean. The colour blue is sacred and apparently shouldn’t be worn in clothing. Their supreme being is known as Yasdan, and the religion’s beliefs also feature seven angels who can reincar- nate themselves in human form, according to Prof. Allison. The most holy is the Malak Taus or Peacock Angel, pictured, the executor of the divine will, to whom the Yazidis pray five times a day.