Nine years after the IS massacre in Shengal: KDP could have prevented hundreds, thousands of deaths?

The Yezidis are one of the many religious minorities in Kurdistan. Yezidism is a rather closed religious tradition with ancient roots. The Yezidis have for generations constituted the majority of the population in Shengal (known as Sinjar in Arabic). But like the rest of Kurdistan, Shengal is also a patchwork of religions and languages. Shengal is located in northwestern Iraq and close to the border with Syria. Centuries of persecution have led to the Yezidis living scattered all over the world.

As a foreigner, I have very limited knowledge, but my impression is that Shengal’s Defence Units (YBŞ and YJŞ) have dealt with these contradictions wisely.

On 3 August 2014, the Islamist terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) started the slaughter of thousands of civilians in Shengal. The leaders of IS claimed and still claim that the Yezidis are infidels, even devil worshippers. For Muslims, it is therefore, according to IS, a religious duty to exterminate them. It did not help the Yezidis that most Muslims see this as a gross distortion of the Koran.

From January to July 2014, IS had gone from victory to victory, first in Syria and then in Iraq. Neither the Syrian nor the Iraqi government army put up significant resistance. In both countries IS conquered large areas of land and one city after another. IS established a new caliphate after they captured Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, in June. From there it is less than a two hour drive to Shengal. During July, IS positioned its forces so that they practically surrounded Shengal. Fear and worry spread among the Yezidis, both in Shengal town and in the villages. Some Yezidis have said that they were attacked by Muslim neighbours. Similar sectarian tragedies also occurred in areas of the Balkans in the 1990s.

The rest of Iraq is also like a patchwork of people, languages and religions. And as far as we know, there is no recognised border between the Kurdish region in the north and the rest of the country, which is governed by the government in Baghdad. It is instead a broad belt of ‘disputed areas’. The region’s internal self-government was enshrined in the constitution in 2005. But conflict over the ‘disputed areas’ was not resolved. The Yezidi’s Shengal is a contested area. Both the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the regional Kurdish government in Hewler (known as Erbil in Arabic) claim Shengal.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is the largest party in the Kurdish region and dominates the regional government. The KDP has its own military forces, traditionally named Peshmerga. In July 2014, many thousands of the KDP’s peshmerga were stationed in Shengal and surrounding areas. Exactly how many thousands there were, is disputed. But everyone suspects high numbers. Based on numbers and weapons equipment, the peshmerga had great military impact.

Head of Peshmerga Department 17, Sarbast Baiperi, stated several times in the KDP media, both on Facebook and on TV: “We will defend Shengal to the last drop of blood.” Sarbast Baiperi was one of the first to run away. The night before IS attacked, he disappeared in his own car without even notifying his department. The entire peshmerga force – except for those who did not follow orders – was out of Shengal before IS launched the attack. And not only that, in several places the KDP’s peshmerga collected the Yezidis’ weapons and rendered them defenceless. Yazidis who tried to flee before the IS attack were stopped by KDP peshmerga in several places (see footnote 1). But we must not forget the peshmerga who remained and took up the fight against IS. They deserve all the credit for this.

In the spring of 2018, a Norwegian friend and I visited one of the villages in Shengal. Eight women detailed how peshmerga leaders promised them protection: “We will stay here and protect you. Therefore you are safe.” They also told of the bestial IS abuses after the peshmerga forces left. The women said that more would have survived if the KDP forces had not fled, but had instead taken up the fight against IS. In any case, this could have delayed the IS offensive, they said. Others who were in Shengal then have used much stronger words.

Online newspaper Kurdistan Daily had already reported, on August 4th 2014, that Kurdish defence forces from Syria (YPG and YPJ) had taken up the fight against IS (see footnote 2). Together with guerrilla soldiers from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), after a few days they managed to clear a “corridor” from the Shengal mountain to Syria. With trucks and tractors, they transported tens of thousands to safety on the other side of the border. Foreign journalists who eventually came to the area received the same message from several: «It was God and the PKK that saved my life.»

The rage against the KDP was fierce among surviving Yezidis. On Wednesday 6 August, while the murders in Shengal were going on, President and KDP leader Massoud Barzani had a meeting with Yezidi leaders. He promised to set up a commission of inquiry. Kurdish media announced that defaulting commanders and KDP officials would be punished. Barzani promised to carry out an investigation (see footnote 3).

Two years later, the president received a comprehensive investigative report. Employees of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the peshmerga forces, and from the KDP’s own administration, had carried out extensive investigations in Shengal. They might have started the investigations soon after the president promised an investigation?

The president did not make the report public. The TV channel KNN – which is close to Gorran – was still able to publish part of the content at the beginning of August 2017:

The report stated that 18,000 KDP peshmerga were stationed in and around Shengal before the IS attack (see footnote 5). On the basis of the KNN report, e-kurd net https://ekurd.net/ wrote that all KDP peshmerga in the area

Thus, the highest political responsibility is placed. Masrour was promoted and became Prime Minister of the Kurdish Region five years after the IS massacres in Shengal.

In 2014, the international media did not focus on the fact that the withdrawal of the KDP’s peshmerga led to the death of an unknown number of Yezidis. But 3-4 weeks after the IS massacre started, an online newspaper in Iraq interviewed a researcher at the American University in Slemani (see footnote 6). Christine van den Toorn had a lot of knowledge both about Shengal and the other disputed areas. Her summary, four weeks after the KDP ordered its Peshmerga to withdraw, was devastating:

I presuppose that KNN’s disclosures of the contents of the investigation report are correct. I think this raises several questions:

After the entire ‘world community’ condemned the IS massacres nine years ago, Turkey has continued where IS eventually had to retreat. I will only mention one of the examples: Turkish planes bombed a hospital in the village of Sikêniyê on August 17, 2021. The Turkish bombs killed 4 health workers.

Shengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly said in a statement: “The target of the attack were sick people, doctors, nursing staff and YBŞ fighters who were responsible for the security of the hospital. (…) The bombing of the hospital will go down in history as a crime against humanity.”

Since August 2014, Turkey has carried out numerous aircraft and drone attacks against Shengal.

I would like to ask two questions to the International Community and to the Norwegian Parliament: