Why ISIS's treatment of Yazidi women must be treated as genocide

[shira]

(CNN) -- "I was hiding behind a water tank in the front yard and saw them killing my father and brother and [taking] away my mother and sister. I don't know anything about them since," says Dunya, a 14-year-old Yazidi girl.

"They put us in trucks and drove us to a big building, before transferring us to a hall across the road," explains Solav, 19 and also Yazidi. "Then their seniors came and started condemning our religion and asking us to convert to Islam ... They separated me along with other young ones and ordered us to stay there while taking away the elderly women.

"The man I was given to raped me several times and then left me in the room on my own. I was shaking from pain and fear in that hot room, my entire body sweating. Suddenly, another man came and did what he wanted to do despite me crying and begging him, kissing his foot to leave me alone ..."

Dunya and Solav (not their real names) now live with their relatives in newly-established displaced persons camps in Iraq's Duhok governorate. They are among thousands of Yazidi women abducted by jihadists during their attack on the Sinjar district on 2 August 2014. Since then, one hundred girls and women have managed to escape their jailers and rejoin their community.

According to our field work, which has involved interviews with witnesses and survivors, and based on other reports which have reached us, more than 2,500 Yazidi girls and women were abducted during the attack.

more...
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/30/opinion/isis-yazidi-women-genocide/index.html?hpt=op_t1

[ZombieHorde]

1. What does it mean

to label this situation as genocide? Why is that label important?

I am not looking for a justification for the label, I am looking for why the label is important. What would be the significance of calling the situation genocide?

[shira]

2. Read on in the article...

Since the ISIS attack, the Yazidi community has been subjected to horrendous crimes, including murder, the destruction of their homes, arrest and kidnapping, enforced disappearance as well as displacement, torture and sexual slavery, and desecration of their holy shrines. As Kurds and Yazidis, they are condemned as heretics and devil worshippers.

Acts of genocide

These acts are categorized as crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, but they are also acts of genocide: they consist of a systematic, intentional and well planned operation to eliminate an entire group because of its ethnic and religious identity.

The international community should mobilize resources and establish a fact-finding commission of experts to investigate and collect evidence from eye-witnesses, highlighting sexual violence against women.

Such timely data and documentation should facilitate not only the prosecution of those responsible, but also the international recognition of these acts as genocide. The process should also include support mechanisms for healing, reparation, compensation, preserving memories and the reintegration of these women into normal life, including much needed post-trauma support for victims and families after their release.

[ZombieHorde]

3. Thanks. The whole article wouldn't load for me.

My laptop is having a lazy day.

So the label is to motivate people into conducting an investigation, and then perhaps create "support mechanisms for healing, reparation, compensation, preserving memories and the reintegration of these women into normal life, including much needed post-trauma support for victims and families after their release" based upon that investigation?

Do you think the label would be used to justify the use of US ground troops?

[shira]

4. Declaring the situation as genocide won't happen due to politics.

I don't think there's any question genocide would certainly happen to Yazidis if ISIS were to win and control the area.

The world couldn't give a shit.

[bob-connors]

5. The GOP has reasons for warmongering in Iraq.

Please read my article relating to this at:
http://bobpaulconnors.hubpages.com/hub/The-GOP-has-reasons-for-warmongering-in-Iraq

[shira]

6. Allowing ISIS to commit genocide vs the Yezidis is horrific. n/t