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The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) on Monday called on the German government to ensure the safety of the Yazidi people in Sinjar (Şengal) and in provinces where they have settled.
The Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, voted on 19 January to recognise the 2014 massacre by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq’s Sinjar region as genocide against the Yazidi people.
The KNK released a statement stressing that recognition was not enough to heal the wounds of the Yazidi people and solve their problems.
“Recognition of the Yazidi genocide by international institutions, first and foremost the UN and the EU, is correct and appropriate. However, it is insufficient. Some more decisions are required in order to secure non-repetition and to compensate for the damage and casualties to some extent,” the statement said, adding that the status and security of Yazidi people must be guaranteed.
The KNK called on international institutions to fulfil their responsibilities in this matter, listing demands such as ensuring security in Sinjar and in places where Yazidis have settled, ensuring that ISIS members and forces involved in the genocide are brought to trial at the Court of Justice, and protecting Sinjar and the areas where Yazidi people have settled from attacks carried out by Turkish forces.
The institution also called on the international powers to rebuild Sinjar, to create opportunities for the Yazidi people to return to their lands.
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.
ISIS was removed from the area on 13 November 2015. In 2016 an independent UN commission of inquiry recognised the massacres as genocide.
