Nobel Peace Prize winner Murad says justice for Yazidis far too slow

Twelve years after the Islamic State’s “genocide” of Yazidis in Iraq, Nadia Murad, a former sex slave of the jihadist group, said Thursday that progress towards justice remains far too slow.

IS jihadists seized large swathes of northern Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, declaring a so-called caliphate.

In August that year, the fate of the Yazidis changed dramatically when IS seized a third of Iraq, including the Kurdish-speaking minority’s ancestral homeland in the Sinjar Mountains.

IS regarded the Yazidis, who follow a pre-Islamic faith, as heretics.

They murdered thousands of Yazidi men in Iraq’s Sinjar province and took into Syria thousands of women and girls to sell them in markets as sex slaves.

UN investigators found that the actions amounted to genocide.

“After surviving, many of them have decided to use their voice to fight for justice for our community,” said Murad, who was awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.

“A lot of them have still family members in captivity. Their loved ones that were killed have not been identified and returned,” she said at a press conference, organised by France at the United Nations in Geneva, to commemorate the horrors of 2014.

“We have loved ones in displacement camps,” added Murad, flanked by other former IS slaves.

Having become a leading voice for her minority, she is calling for greater support from the international community to bring those responsible for the atrocities to justice, denouncing the sluggish progress.

“For 12 years we have been repeating the same issues: of the missing women and children; of the remains to be identified; of the Yazidis to be able to go back home, and for justice to be delivered for survivors,” the Nobel laureate said.

“Progress has been made, but it’s very slow. And for many families, it’s torture, because they still wait every day in tents, many in captivity.

“Prevention starts with justice and accountability — and that is what we’re all here for.”

Another former sex slave, Khawa Ali, denounced the fact that some IS members are now “walking free” having returned to Europe, while their victims “still live in fear”.

She welcomed the conviction in Belgium last year of the man who held her captive.

“My message today is that we hope that justice will be delivered and the international community will continue to do trials,” the young woman said.

apo/rjm/rh