Social media campaign marks fourth anniversary of Yazidi genocide
Activists hoping to raise awareness for thousands of missing people kidnapped by ISIS in 2014 hold events around the world and online
The four-year anniversary of ISIS’ genocidal attack on Iraq’s Yazidi community is resurfacing in a shocking social media campaign this week. The online campaign highlights personal testimony from Yazidis who had been kidnapped and raped since the attacks started in August 2014, as well as descriptions of those still believed to be missing.
“The Islamic State started its attack on Shingal (Yazidi/Ezidi area) on the 3rd of August 2014,” tweeted Wednesday by an account called Kurdish Students UK. “Thousands of people lost their lives, and many women were kidnapped. These women were brutally raped and sold on streets as sex slaves.”
The Twitter post, including the trending phrase# Never forget Sh eng al, was shared 28 times. It is part of a larger worldwide campaign held by Yazidi and other activists raising awareness for the fourth anniversary of the ISIS attacks, which the UN and other human rights groups have labeled as genocidal.
Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor and ambassador for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, recently met with US Vice President Mike Pence and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley to raise awareness for continued assistance. As part of her visit, Murad visited the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and tweeted how the images of the Holocaust reminded her of the Yazidis’ suffering.
She has been seeking to encourage religious freedom and help for minorities as well as pushing for investigations of ISIS crimes.
“Our mass graves r unexamined & evidence disappears everyday,” Murad tweeted Thursday.
ISIS conquered a swath of northern Iraq in the summer of 2014, capturing Mosul in June and other major, mostly Sunni, cities. It expelled Shi’ites from Tal Afar, and massacred thousands of other Shi’ites near Mosul and at Camp Speicher. It also expelled Christians from the Nineveh plains east of Mosul, a major Christian region for nearly 2,000 years. On August 3, 2014, ISIS attacked the Yazidi areas near Mount Sinjar and the Kurdish region. On August 7, US President Barack Obama had ordered air strikes to stop the ongoing genocide. By then, around 10,000 Yazidis had been systematically kidnapped and murdered. Many were buried in an estimated 30 mass graves.
Since 2014 Yazidis and their supporters have tried to raise awareness for their suffering, often with their pleas falling on deaf ears. Although media reported widely on the salacious details of “sex slavery,” few resources have been invested by the international community to helping the victims. Around 350,000 Yazidis were displaced in 2014, many still unable to return to their homes and villages, which had been destroyed and laced with tunnels and explosive devices by ISIS.
The social media campaign effectively uses images and quotes, many of them shocking. One account with 24,000 followers posted a photo of a young Yazidi girl hiding her face. “He (ISIS terrorist) tied me up and put me at the end of his prayer rug. When he was finished praying he would untie me and rape me,” the account tweeted.
Another account posted photos of Yazidis fleeing the attacks, when hundreds of thousands made their way in the hot summer toward protection in Mount Sinjar and eventual safety in Syria.
Activists have asked the public to participate in marking the anniversary. “Change your profile picture until August 3,” one activist wrote, with an image showing women and children fleeing ISIS in 2014.
Supporters could be found tweeting about the anniversary in Arabic, Hindi, Dutch and German, many of them angry that little has been done to bring justice. While 40,000 ISIS members have died in battle, and Iraq sentenced hundreds more to death, no action has been taken to track down others who have participated in the genocide.
Calls have also been made to help locate missing Yazidis. According to Murad Yazidi, another activist, 3,201 people are still missing. Several Yazidi children were found in Syria, as well as a man in Turkey who had been kidnapped as a teen.
Other social media images show the destruction done to Yazidi religious sites, including cemeteries and coned-shaped temples. Some areas have been rebuilt since liberation in 2015, such as Babire, a town in Shingal.
A man who goes by the Twitter handle Billy Biketruck posted a photo with Yazidi youth in the holy site of Lalish in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The area never fell to ISIS, and many sought shelter there in 2014.
“Lovely kids, just like my kids except their stories would keep you awake at night,” he tweeted. “We remember what ISIS did in 2014, slaughter, kidnap, enslave, rape, torture.”
Commemorations will take place online as well as in different sites around the world. Yazda, a Swedish-based organization supporting Yazidis, will host an event on August 3. There will also be ceremonies in Germany, Australia, New York and Baghdad.
As the activists seek to raise awareness, Iraq is still under major threats from ISIS. The government has launched a three-phase campaign called “Revenge of the Martyrs” to track down ISIS cells in three governorates north of Baghdad. But attacks continue daily, with assassinations of local police, and fake checkpoints that lead to hit-and-run raids, all attributed to ISIS. With each victory Iraq declares, it appears ISIS pops up somewhere else. Tensions are also running high with local Sunni tribesmen clashing with Shi’ite militias, and widespread protests months after elections that have left Baghdad unable to form a government.
While the international community and Iraq have invested in rebuilding Mosul, sources say very little has gone to Yazidi areas. The March Lead Inspector General report at the US Department of Defense says only $55 million has been invested in areas where there are religious and ethnic minorities, “including Christians, Yazidis and Sunnis in northern Iraq.”