Aug. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has called on Friday, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Yazidi genocide perpetrated by Islamic State, for the immediate release of the victims as well as the women and children detained “solely” for their affiliation with this terrorist group, who are being held in northeastern Syria.
“The international community should support their recovery and well-being and their pursuit of justice, not perpetuate the atrocities they have survived,” said Commissioner Lynn Welchman, referring to the victims of the Yazidi genocide who are being held “alongside their persecutors in dehumanizing conditions.”
According to the Commission, Yazidis are forced to “hide their ethnic and religious identity for fear of violence from supporters of the Islamic State.” In addition, women from this community with children born as a result of rape by jihadist fighters risk being repatriated to Iraq while the children remain in Syria and, therefore, being separated from their children.
The agency said that the self-administration that manages the camps in northeastern Syria, supported by the International Coalition against the Islamic State, must therefore “redouble its efforts to respect human rights and identify and free the Yazidis held there.”
For their part, the member states of this Coalition must offer them “meaningful options regarding return to Iraq, reunification with relatives or settlement in third countries with their children.”
The Commission has also called on the international community to “adequately fund humanitarian responses (…) that take into account the age and gender of the Yazidi community.”
According to the agency’s data, 44,000 women and children, more than half of whom are minors, remain “indefinitely detained” in these camps. Two-thirds of them are foreigners, from Iraq and more than 60 other countries.
The Commission also commented on the situation of the alleged former members of the jihadist group, condemning the “general internment of civilians” who do not represent “any imperative threat to security.” In addition, war crimes are being committed by internment in conditions of “cruel or inhuman treatment (…) lack of basic medical care, food and physical and mental suffering.”
“In our opinion, the current situation in prisons and camps in north-east Syria does nothing to combat the extremist ideology of the Islamic State and, on the contrary, may be contributing to the radicalisation of children and young people held there,” he warned.
The Commission has thus drawn attention to the need to “recognise and protect the fundamental human rights of all prisoners and detainees to a fair trial with due process guarantees, to basic medical care, to adequate food and water, and to freedom of expression.”
This Saturday marks ten years since the Islamic State committed genocide against the Yazidi people of Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq, near the border with Syria. They also committed multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes through mass executions, forced religious conversions to Islam, slavery and widespread sexual violence against women and girls.
Following the fall of Baghouz in March 2019, when the terrorist group lost its territorial hold in Syria, tens of thousands of people believed to be relatives of its fighters, including enslaved Yazidi women and girls, were detained in internment camps, including Al Hol and Roj in the northeast of the country.
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