Four years ago I spent two weeks with Yazidis in a camp outside Duhok Northern Iraq. The family I stayed with had lost two daughters to ISIS and every other day traumatized women were being smuggled out of #ISIS territory and brought to the camps.
Many of the women couldn't speak and families didn't know what to do. Every family had an aunt, a daughter, a sister, a mother taken by ISIS and one man who survived the mass execution of men said most of his friends were now in a mass grave near Sinjar.
Their community was destroyed and many of the yazidis who have been persecuted for centuries - decided to leave. Including the family I stayed with. Many left without knowing the fate of loved ones. This was brutal ethnic cleansing and the enslavement of women and children.
In the photo is Dahkil Osman, he was once one of the most famous wedding singer in Sinjar, when I met him he was bearded and broken and sang heartbreaking songs about the genocide of the yazidis, little children happily sang along.
Entire generations of women vanished and thousands of girls and women are still missing.They are dead or have been sold on again in Saudi, Turkey etc.These families never got justice.Young girls who were raped and sold to dozens of men now sleep in freezing tents without services
Yazidis aren't considered refugees in Duhok they are seen as internally displaced people (as they're from Iraq). This means funding allocated to refugees does not reach them. Many ngos are now pulling out, not because their services aren't required but because of funding.
Boys as young as eight stayed with #ISIS until the end. Digging tunnels all day and night in their last stranglehold Baghouz.The boys used as slaves by isis are now back with their families in the camps. They have no services and spend their days playing violent video games.
The world has failed the yazidis and we will continue to fail them if the people that willingly joined the organized that enslaved them go free. If you left you're comfortable home to partipate in #ISIS on any level you need to be punished. But that's just part of it.
The yazidis need services now, and the larger NGOs are leaving. It's winter and they need help. One organisation I know @syriasvibes is working on a shoestring to bring services to yazidis in Iraq also @YazdaOrg can give you info about yazidis.
Lastly please tweet or email your local politician and ask them about #ISIS accountability for member in your country. These people should not go free.
You can follow @normcos.
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