Tánaiste meets with survivors of group slaughtered by ISIS

It is estimated Isis abducted and killed 5,000 Yazidis, and 6,000 women and children were taken into slavery.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has met surviving members of a religious group slaughtered by terrorist group Isis 10 years ago.

The extremist organisation launched a genocidal campaign against the Yazidi community in Iraq and Syria in their establishment of a fanatical regime during 2014 and 2017.

The Department of Foreign Affairs held a seminar on Tuesday to mark 10 years since Isis, also known as Da’esh, launched an attack on the Yazidis in their homeland of Sinjar, in northern Iraq.

It is estimated Isis abducted and killed 5,000 Yazidis, and 6,000 women and children were taken into slavery.

About two thirds of the Yazidi population, numbering over 400,000 people, were displaced from northern Iraq.

UN investigations found those taken into slavery were subjected to horrific violence, domestic servitude, forced conscription and rape (including forced marriage to Da’esh fighters).

Many were also forcibly converted to Islam and many of those enslaved were subsequently murdered.

Mr Martin, who is also minister for foreign affairs, met with members of the Yazidi community of Iraq, along with Yazda, a body representing Yazidis and other minority groups attacked by Da’esh.

A department statement said these groups as well as the government of Iraq, the Kurdish regional government and EU officials attended the seminar.

Issues included the prospects of the Yazidis returning home to rebuild their community as well as the possibility of accountability of those behind the slaughter.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin: 'I was honoured to meet today with members of Iraq’s Yazidi community and pleased that my department was able to host a seminar marking the 10th anniversary of the atrocities inflicted on their people by Da’esh.' Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The statement said the seminar also discussed the winding-up this month of Unitad, the UN mission investigating Da’esh crimes, the preservation of its records and continuation of its work.

The statement said: “At the seminar, Shereen Kheddo, a survivor of the atrocities, said 'when telling us about previous genocidal campaigns and attacks against Yazidis, our grandmothers used to say 'Mala Ma khrakrin', this is a Kurmanji sentence that literally means, 'They destroyed our homes', but I don’t think that you can fully understand it unless you hear it from an elderly women saying it with eyes full of tears and a sigh that burns her lungs'.” 

The statement said Mr Martin commended the Yazidi representatives on their “resilience under terrible assault, their determination to tell their stories and to rebuild and seek redress”.

He said: “I was honoured to meet today with members of Iraq’s Yazidi community and pleased that my department was able to host a seminar marking the 10th anniversary of the atrocities inflicted on their people by Da’esh.

“Their resilience in the face of such brutality is inspiring and I am glad to have been able to offer this platform to the Yazidi people to promote awareness of their cause.”