{"id":12835,"date":"2021-12-09T18:56:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T02:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12835"},"modified":"2021-12-09T18:56:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T02:56:10","slug":"iraq-holds-funeral-for-yazidi-mass-grave-victims-of-is-agence-france-presse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12835","title":{"rendered":"“Iraq holds funeral for Yazidi mass grave victims of IS”, Agence France-Presse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kojo (Iraq) (AFP) \u2013 <\/span>Incense wafted in the air as a funeral cortege made its way to a cemetery in northern Iraq for the burial of 41 Yazidis killed by jihadists and recovered from mass graves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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An aerial picture shows mourners carrying coffins during a mass funeral for Yazidi victims of the Islamic State (IS) group whose remains were found in a mass grave, in the northern Iraqi village of Kojo in Sinjar province<\/span> Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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After seizing swathes of Iraq in 2014, Islamic State group jihadists carried out horrific massacres, including in the northern region of Sinjar where the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority has long been rooted.<\/p>\n

After Iraqi authorities declared victory over the jihadists in 2017, scores of mass graves were discovered across the country, including in the Sinjar town of Kojo.<\/p>\n

The first of several mass grave was exhumed in Kojo in mid-March 2019, followed by a long and painstaking process of identifying the remains.<\/p>\n

In November, a German court, in a historic first, jailed an Iraqi IS member to life in prison for war crimes against the Yazidis, finding him guilty of genocide.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, drums rolled and traditional flutes played as Iraqi soldiers carried 41 wooden coffins.<\/p>\n

Portraits of the victims — both men and women — were placed in front of each coffin before it was lowered into the ground.<\/p>\n

Flowers and the Iraqi flag were laid on top of the coffins.<\/p>\n

Yazidi religious hymns were recited during the ceremony, as women wailed and beat their chest in mourning.<\/p>\n

Suleiman Hussein, 53, stood among the mourners to pay respects to his father, a cousin and several uncles.<\/p>\n

‘Wound reopens’<\/h2>\n

Hussein helped identify his relatives whose remains were found in mass graves around Kojo thanks to items of clothing and other personal effects.<\/p>\n

Iraqi authorities have also taken thousands of DNA samples from families in Sinjar to help identify the victims.<\/p>\n

Kiji Ammo Sello, 49, buried his sister-in-law and uncles. In February, he had already laid to rest his sisters and their children.<\/p>\n

Each time “our wound reopens”, he said. “It has been seven years and we have known no respite.”<\/p>\n

Yazidi survivor and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad lamented the delayed final farewells, in a tweet.<\/p>\n

“Today, my community buried 41 Yazidi victims (26 men and 15 women) of the Kojo massacre,” she said of her hometown.<\/p>\n

“My heart is with all families who will finally be able to honour their loved ones,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

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A mourner carries a coffin during a mass funeral for Yazidi victims of the Islamic State (IS) group<\/span> Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“Yet, thousands of families still wait to bury relatives, which is why we must push for expedited exhumations.”<\/p>\n

Murad was seized by IS from her home village of Kojo in August 2014 and taken to the city of Mosul.<\/p>\n

As a captive of the reviled extremist group, Murad said she was tortured and raped.<\/p>\n

‘One survivor… not enough’<\/h2>\n

The Yazidis follow an ancient religion rooted in Zoroastrianism, and IS considered them “apostates” and “devil-worshippers”.<\/p>\n

According to religious authorities, more than 1,280 Yazidis were killed by IS, leaving several hundred children orphaned.<\/p>\n

Nearly 70 of their shrines were destroyed.<\/p>\n

The mass graves in Iraq where jihadists are believed to have dumped their victims contain up to 12,000 bodies, according to the UN.<\/p>\n

Some 5,000 other bodies are thought to be in mass graves in neighbouring Syria.<\/p>\n

Iraqi forensics expert Zeid Ali Abbas, who was at Thursday’s funeral, said huge challenges face the identification process.<\/p>\n

“Many families have left Iraq while entire ones are listed as missing with only one survivor around to provide DNA, and that is not enough.”<\/p>\n

Mourners said they hope other countries will follow Germany’s example and put on trial IS members for the crimes they committed.<\/p>\n

“More action must be taken against other jihadists so that we can find peace and avenge our honour, our martyrs, our children and our parents,” Hussein said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parsi, 09\/12\/2021 Kojo (Iraq) (AFP) \u2013 Incense wafted in the air as a funeral cortege made its way to a cemetery in northern Iraq for the burial of 41 Yazidis killed by jihadists and recovered from mass graves. An aerial picture shows mourners carrying coffins during a mass funeral for Yazidi victims of the Islamic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12836,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12835\/revisions\/12836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}