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Five Years on, Yazidis Remember Brutal ISIS Onslaught
 [AAWSAT] Iraq's Yazidi minority held its summer festival on the weekend, five years after gunnies seized their ancestral heartland of Sinjar, in a brutal assault that still haunts the community.On August 3, 2014, ISIS group fighters seized Mount Sinjar, and went on to slaughter thousands of Yazidi men and boys and abduct girls to be used as "sex slaves". The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... has said ISIS' actions could amount to genocide, and is investigating bad boy atrocities across Iraq. On Saturday, women wearing white T-shirts paraded around Lalish temple, the Yazidis' holiest shrine, brandishing banners to commemorate the "genocide" and portraits of ISIS victims. They were led by Hazem Tahsin Bek, who late last month was enthroned as the community's prince at a ceremony in Lalish, succeeding his father Tahsin Said Ali who died in January after a long illness. Yazidi dignitaries in long white robes took part in the ceremony during which participants lit candles and burned special oils as part of the annual ritual to purify the temple. "The summer festival takes place at the same time as the commemoration of the genocide that took place in Sinjar when ISIS launched its assault against the mountain," Hazem Tahsin Bek told AFP. The 56-year-old hereditary leader is in charge of running the community and cooperating with Kurdish authorities in the north and the federal government in Baghdad. "We are remembering all those killed during this genocide five years ago," he said. Posted by: Fred 2019-08-05 |
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