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Iraq
DNA tools needed to identify Yazidis slaughtered by ISIS: Iraqi lawmaker
2016-04-26
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraq’s only female Yazidi politician has said that documentation of ISIS’ "genocide" against her own people is continuing, but far more needs to be done.

Vian Dakhil, who is known for her fervent plea over the plight of the Yazidi minority group whom she belongs to, said that efforts to identify bodies found in more than 20 mass graves have been hampered for a simple reason: there is no DNA testing equipment in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdish region.

The killing of between 2,000 to 5,000 men in a northern town known for its Yazidi population after a surprise attack by ISIS turbans in August 2014 has now become known as a Sinjar massacre. While the men were killed, thousands of women and kiddies were taken and enslaved by ISIS. Other fled to the nearby Mount Sinjar.

"We do not have specialized equipment and medical material specialized to test DNA of the corpses found in the mass graves," said Dakhil. The politician is a member of the Baghdad parliament’s Kurdistan Alliance.

"There needs to be DNA testing to prove the identity of these victims," she said.

Due to the need, the parliamentarian said that Kurdistan’s regional government in Erbil has asked Iraq’s health ministry for help.

While the Baghdad ministry "expressed their willingness," she said, actions still fall short.

Iraq’s capital has recently witnessed large protests urging the prime minister to push forward with reforms to tackle corruption.

"It seems they are busy with many other things."
Posted by:Fred

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