18 Mass Graves in Sinjar Ready for Exhumation, KRG Official Says
Eighteen more ISIS mass graves in Sinjar are ready for exhumation, and a Kurdistan Region delegation will visit Baghdad next week to finalize the procedures.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Eighteen more mass graves of ISIS victims in Sinjar are ready to be exhumed, and a Kurdistan Region delegation will travel to Baghdad next week to settle the final arrangements, an official in the Kurdistan Regional Government told Kurdistan24.
In an exclusive statement on Friday, Aram Nuri, director of mass graves at the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs, said all of the graves are remains of the crimes and terrorist attacks ISIS carried out against the Sinjar district.
In the first phase, 18 of them have been fully prepared so that the exhumation process can begin.
Nuri said a full agreement has been reached between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Federal Government of Iraq in Baghdad, under which teams from both sides will jointly carry out the exhumations.
To put the step into effect and determine the timing and method of the teams’ fieldwork, a delegation from the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs is due to visit Baghdad early next week.
The delegation will finalize the technical and legal procedures with the relevant authorities of the Iraqi government.
When ISIS terrorists attacked the district of Sinjar in August 2014, hundreds of massacres were committed against the Ezidis, leaving dozens of mass graves in the area.
The exhumation of the graves and the identification of victims’ remains through DNA testing are still continuing, so that the victims can be laid to rest with dignity in the soil of their homeland.