Yazidis Laud France, Sweden to launch a joint investigation to prosecute IS fighters
Yazidi groups and activists welcome France and Sweden’s recently decided to organize a joint investigation team to assist in the prosecution of former Islamic State soldiers who have committed crimes against members of the persecuted religious minority in Syria and Iraq.
The two European countries formed a joint investigation team last week to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against Yazidis by foreign militants linked to IS under the group’s ruthless rule over parts of Iraq and Syria.
French and Swedish investigative efforts are coordinated by the European Union Office for Criminal Justice (Eurojust). The group said the joint team is trying to organize these efforts and enable information and evidence to be shared more effectively.
“JIT’s main goal [Joint Investigation Team] will be identifying FTFs [foreign terrorist fighters] “They were involved in key international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, which were committed mainly against members of the Yazidi minority during the armed conflict in Syria and Iraq,” Eurojust said in a statement.
Jabir Jendo, a Yazidi volunteer who has helped Yazidi women and children rescued from IS in Syria, said the operation shows that there is still time to get justice for the victims of the Islamic State.
“Measures like this give the Yazidis hope that those who have committed crimes against us cannot escape the justice system and will be held accountable for their horrific acts,” he told VOA, adding that the initiative of France and Sweden “should be an incentive for other countries. in Europe and elsewhere to consolidate their efforts in the pursuit of justice for the Yazidi community. ”
Jendo said that “the presence of some of these individuals in Europe is a direct threat to many Yazidi survivors living there now and continues to suffer from the trauma that these individuals have probably inflicted on them.”
The pursuit of justice
Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority who are seen as unfaithful by IS extremists.
In August 2014, IS carried out a massive attack on Sinjar, once home to the largest Yazidi community in the world. At least 5,000 Yazidis, mostly men and boys, were killed during the attack on the northern Iraqi city.
IS then kidnapped thousands of Yazidi children and women, who were later used as sex slaves and child soldiers.
Some of the kidnappers were rescued after IS territorial defeat in March 2019, but rights groups say nearly 3,000 Yazidi women and children are missing so far.
In May 2021, a UN investigation team said “there is clear and convincing evidence that the crimes” committed by IS “against the Yazidi people were clearly genocide”.
According to Ali Isso, head of the Ezdina Foundation, a group that advocates the rights of Yazidis, the formation of a joint team of Eurojust Agency “is a real step forward in the hunt for the terrorists who took part in the genocide campaign against the Yazidis.”
“It can now be said that the terrorists, some of whom fled to the European Union, no longer have a refuge after the formation of this team,” he told the VOA, “because one of its main powers is to obtain a bank information about the suspects, and thus, there will be effective cooperation between this team and the EU Member States’ intelligence services. ”
Isso called on other countries to follow suit “to tighten the screws on the remnants of the terrorist organization” in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Eurojust said that authorities in several EU countries have already prosecuted terrorism and basic international crimes related to IS, also known as ISIS. In a German court, for example, an Iraqi man was sentenced to life in prison in November for his involvement in crimes against the Yazidis.
The United States has repatriated more than two dozen Americans who supported the Islamic State and prosecuted some of them. However, the Biden administration has not publicly stated whether it supports a broad investigation into the atrocities of the Islamic State. Last year, the United States and 17 other countries issued one joint statement expresses its willingness to help Yazidis displaced by the Islamic State and to advocate for their rights.
Six years too late
Some experts said that although the establishment of this joint investigation team is an important development in the search for justice for Yazidi victims, it is six years late.
“ISIS atrocities and genocides were well known and documented as early as 2015 when many mass graves were found in and around Sinjar,” said Seth Frantzman, author of the book “After ISIS”, which has written extensively on the Yazidis.
“The fact that it has taken six years to do basic work means that forensic evidence is gone, memories may fade, the thousands of missing Yazidis are unlikely to be found, and ISIS criminals have long since begun to fade back into the communities they came from. “from,” he told VOA.
However, Frantzman said that “if this task force and coordination can produce more symbolic trials, it will be worth it. It is important to create an archive of survivors’ testimonies and celebrate ISIS victims and show that there is no impunity for perpetrators.”
This story has its origins in VOA’s Kurdish Service.