Massoud Barzani, former regional president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), has not kept his promise to launch an investigation into the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) abandonment of the Yazidi people during the Islamic State’s (ISIS) attack on Sinjar (Shengal), said journalist Behêz Hussein, on the ninth anniversary of the 2014 massacre, which has been recognised as genocide by several countries.
The role of the KDP in the ISIS attack is still a matter of major debate. Speaking to Roj News, Hussein said that it was a great shame that a large Peshmerga force fled, leaving the Yazidis alone.
According to the journalist, the attack was not motivated by the importance of Shengal’s strategic geographical position. Instead, the main aim was to massacre the Yazidi community and start a genocide against the Kurds.
The journalist also believes that the KDP’s decision to withdraw and the Peshmerga’s decision to leave the people defenceless was not spontaneous. “This could be part of a genocidal plan against the Yazidis,” he said.
When he was still the president of the Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani said that a commission would be set up to investigate those who left Sinjar during the ISIS offensive. However, this commission did not announce any results of any investigation.
The ISIS attacks against Yazidis in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq started on 3 August 2014. ISIS overran the Yazidi’s lands, forcing young women into sexual and domestic servitude for ISIS fighters, massacring thousands of people and driving Yazidis from the area.
The massacre began after the withdrawal of Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga, which left the Yazidis defenceless.
ISIS was removed from the area on 13 November 2015. Despite continued efforts to find them, thousands of Yazidis remain missing.
