KRG begins excavating Ezidi mass graves

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Identified mass graves of Ezidis (Yazidi) in and around the city of Shingal (Sinjar) will be excavated starting next week.

The Kurdistan Region’s Higher Committee for Recognizing Ezidi Genocide has identified 25 mass graves to date. According to the committee, these mass graves may contain approximately 1300 bodies.

Mahmood Salih, Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), told a Kurdistan24 reporter on Monday, “We will have an agreement with the international organizations to train our staff on grave excavations.”

“The trained staff will work on excavating Ezidi mass graves and that of the Kurds killed by the former Iraqi regime in the middle and south of Iraq to repatriate the bodies to the Kurdistan Region,” Salih added. 

Several groups from the Kurdistan Region, in cooperation with a United Nations (UN) team, will start the excavation project in April in order to recognize the Ezidi massacre as genocide, a Kurdistan24 reporter who attended the conference said.

In December 2015, the government submitted an official request to the international community to officially recognize the massacres in Shingal (Sinjar) and other Kurdish areas overran by the Islamic State (IS) as genocide.

Shingal was invaded by IS on August 2014. Following the occupation, IS carried out mass executions and sold Ezidi women in the markets in Syria as war trophies and sex slaves. On Nov. 13, 2015, Peshmerga forces, with the aerial support of the international coalition jets, liberated Shingal and pushed IS out of the city.

Reporting by Baxtiyar Goran and Hoshmand Sadiq in Erbil
Editing by Ava Homa and Karzan Sulaivany