23/09/2024
Dear people,
We, a group of Dutch Ezidis (Yezidis) including many survivors of the genocide, feel obligated to provide clarification after we were accused of creating an unsafe situation during the conference ‘Decade after the Yazidi Genocide: Overcoming Obstacles on the Road to Recovery and Justice’ that was held last week on September 20.
On that day we organized a small demonstration. We did that for several reasons. The overarching reason is that critical Ezidis and/or experts, activists, researchers and journalists have been silenced for years. It is important to us that during conferences, meetings or debates, the full truth is stated about the genocide, including the fact that the Kurdish Peshmerga (from the KDP) left in the middle of the night, without warning the Ezidis in Shingal (Sinjar).
Ezidis have been living in IDP-camps in the Kurdish Region of Iraq for ten years. For ten years, our suffering has been used and distorted by Kurdish political parties who seek more power and who are controlling the Ezidis. Worldwide they speak on our behalf, about our genocide, while critical Ezidis and others are being silenced. That was also the case at the conference on Sep.20.
The organization had invited representatives of the Kurdish political party KDP to come and speak, while important people within the Ezidi community and experts were given little or no speaking time.
Many Ezidis feel that the documentary ‘Daughters of the Sun’ by Reber Dosky, which was scheduled to be displayed on the screen during the conference, doesn’t give viewers an honest image of the genocide. The peshmerga are portrayed as heroes, while in fact they abandoned the Ezidis the night before ISIS attacked. Because there was no security in the whole area of Shingal, ISIS terrorists were able to carry out genocide. Thousands of men were killed, their women and children enslaved.
According to the organization of the conference, we created an ‘unsafe situation’, and they even suggested that we had been aggressive towards speakers. The director of Stichting Vluchteling also said in the Dutch paper De Telegraaf that we ‘silenced genocide survivors’. We strongly deny all this.
We are genocide survivors ourselves, part of the Ezidi community, we are peaceful, and our protest was not directed against survivors: it was directed against KDP influences. We have great respect for the brave survivors for telling their story. They are our brothers and sisters.
It has been ten years since IS terrorists attacked Sinjar and murdered our fathers, brothers, sons and uncles, and kidnapped our mothers, women, and children. Our suffering is deep, and our entire community is traumatized. In those ten years, little has changed for the Ezidis: 2,800 women and children are still missing, Ezidis still live in IDP-camps and Shingal is not being rebuilt. To change things, and to create a safe and stable future for all Ezidis, the truth must be told.
This is not Iraq or Kurdistan: this is the Netherlands. It is precisely here that Ezidis should be free to engage in an honest and open dialogue. They should not be intimidated or smothered by political influences from outside. The reactions to the peaceful demonstration are yet another attempt to put critical, Ezidi civilians and activists in a bad light. We are very shocked by this, but we are not surprised.
We appreciate the intentions of any organization such as Dutch refugee foundation to help us Ezidis, but when we see that people who hide and twist the truth get an open space while Ezidi voices are being smothered, we understand that those organizations have limited understanding of the root causes of the Ezidi Genocide. Without the truth, there will be no justice, and no healing.
Sincerely,
Ezidis
