KRG to HRW: Yazda NGO closed down for political activities, not humanitarian

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Yazda nongovernmental organization was shut down due to carrying out political activities in the Kurdistan Region rather than humanitarian services, said a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official on Friday.

Recently, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report stating that the KRG has closed “a prominent nongovernmental organization supporting the Yezidi [Ezidi] religious minority.”

HRW also mentioned that shutting down the NGO “for unspecified reasons and at a time of growing humanitarian need has quickly sent a shudder through Iraq’s humanitarian community.”

On Friday, Dr. Dindar Zebari, head of the KRG’s High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports, posted on his official Twitter account that the closing down of Yazda organization was due to deviations from its "main mandate which is supposed to be [providing] humanitarian services.”

Yazda organization is based in the province of Duhok in the Kurdistan Region. The NGO has been providing humanitarian assistance to the Kurdish Ezidi group in the southwest.

“Representatives of the Yazda NGO were requested to stop carry[ing out] political activities, but in contrary [they] continued to ignore requests,” Zebari added. 

KRG has rescued thousands of the Ezidis who were kidnapped by the so-called Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq in August 2014.

The KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in 2014 created a special office to rescue Ezidis, mostly women and children, from the IS. So far, the office has rescued over 2,890 men, women and children, according to PM Barzani.

“KRG has pushed all necessary efforts to bring the case of [Ezidis] into international occasions," Zebari stated.

In August 2014, IS attacked and occupied the Ezidi-populated city of Sinjar (Shingal). Hundreds of thousand Ezidis were displaced, sheltering in the Kurdistan Region and abroad.

IS targeted Ezidis and the United Nations recognized the act as a genocide. The extremist group kidnapped Ezidi women and sold them as slaves in their markets.

In November 2015, Kurdish Peshmerga forces with the support of the US-led coalition airstrikes liberated Shingal.

Editing by Ava Homa