Peregraf- Ammar Aziz
The sorrows of Jihad Ravu pile on top of one another. While searching for his missing Yazidi relatives, he must also struggle with life in a displacement camp. He has lived for the last decade sleeping in a tent and does not know how long he canremain there. Iraq’s federal government is pressuring displaced people to go back home, but many places are not ready for their return.
“My village is completely destroyed and has been declared a deserted area. I have no house to return to,” Ravu, 49, told Peregraf. He is from Kojo, which was particularly hard hit when Islamic State (ISIS) militants attacked Sinjar district on August 3, 2014. They murdered many of the men and kidnapped the women and children who could not escape.
Ravu’s wife and three children — two daughters and a son — were abducted by ISIS during the initial attack, but were rescued shortly after. But his family remains broken.
“My parents, two brothers, and two sisters have been missing for ten years and I do not know their fate,” he said.
Politicians and officials from Iraq, the Kurdistan Region, and foreign governments have repeatedly assured Ravu and the entire Yazidi community of their support in finding the missing, ending displacement, reconstructing Sinjar, and compensating the victims. Yet, few of these promises have been fulfilled.
Ten years ago, ISIS militants surged out of Syria and swept across northern Iraq, taking Mosul in June 2014. By August, they had set their sights on Sinjar. Subsequent accountings of the massacres there in early August found that the militants killed as many as 5,000 people, kidnapped 6,417 men, women, and children, and displaced 350,000 others. Tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) continue to live in the Kurdistan Region.
Shahab Ahmad, director of the Sinjar branch of the Survivors Affairs Office, told Peregraf that “the government has decided to reward those who provide information about the kidnapped people.”
“This will be a very good step for determining the fate of more than 2,000 Yazidi abductees,” Ahmad added.
In 2020, the federal government and the KRG signed the Sinjar Agreement, which outlined steps to form a new local administration, rebuild the district, and address security concerns. But it has not been implemented and, indeed, criticized by many Yazidis who said that their concerns were not considered.
The Yazidi Female Survivors Law, which went into force in 2021, is designed to provide the survivors of ISIS attacks from minority communities with support services and reintegration into society. It also emphasizes the need to identify and rescue people still in captivity.
“According to the law, monthly payments to about 1,700 survivors have been made so far. Those who have not yet completed their registrations and those who are abroad will receive their payments when their paperwork is completed,”Ahmad said. So far, land was also given to 262 survivors under the law as part of their compensation.
However, tens of thousands of Yazidi families continue to be internally displaced ten years after fleeing their homes. Approximately 30 percent of the 630,000 displaced people who live in the Kurdistan Region are still in what was meant to be temporary accommodation in the camps.
“We have been living the worst life for ten years. We want to return and have a stable life, but my village has been destroyed,” Ravu said. He hopes that conditions will become favorable enough for him to spend the rest of his life in his homeland of Sinjar without any problems.
“Returning has become a dream and may not come true,” he added dismally.
The federal government in Baghdad tried to force the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to close all IDP camps in its territory and set a July 31 deadline to do so. The Ministry of Migration and Displacement offered one-off payments of 4 million Iraqi dinars and other assistance to each family to incentivize them to return to their places of origin.
The authorities in Sulaimaniyah, which is controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), went ahead and implemented the order. In contrast, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) argued that Baghdad was moving too quickly and resisted the directive. Twenty-one camps in Erbil and Duhok remain in operation.
Pir Dayan Jaafar, director of the KRG’s Migration and Crisis Response Office, told Peregraf that the federal government's decision to close the camps has been delayed amid the disagreement.
“There are two main reasons for the non-return of IDPs. Theadministrative problems with regard to lack of services andsecurity have not been resolved,” Jaafar said. “And their areas are not completely stable. There are a number of armed forces that should not be in power in Sinjar.”
The KRG has also requested that the federal government increase the amount of money given to the returnees and that it should also be made available to IDPs who are not living in the camps, Jaafar said.
“One of the most important and strategic issues for us is the establishment of a new administration for Sinjar district. It will solve most of the problems,” Mohammed Jassim, a member of the Nineveh Provincial Council, told Peregraf.
Over the past seven years, there have been two competing local administrations. One is based in Sinjar district, while the other operates from afar in Duhok. Neither recognizes the authority of the other.
In early July, the Nineveh Provincial Council announced appointments to local offices across the governorate, including a top official for Sinjar. However, this decision was challenged by several parties on the council. The KDP has filed a lawsuit to prevent its implementation.
“The council meeting that elected Saydo Khairi as governor of Sinjar was a legal and constitutional meeting, but the people who were appointed have not yet taken office,” said Jassim, who is a member of the PUK. Several members of his party were given positions as a part of the decision.
Caught up in the political conflicts and the empty promises, Yazidis like Ravu continue to wait to see whether they can return to their homeland.
“Everything that was said was a lie,” he told Peregraf. “We don't know what to worry about: those whose fate is unknown, the new administration, or the reconstruction of Sinjar. Everything remains unresolved.”