2014-09-09 16:04:00

Iraq: A Yazidi cry for help


(Vatican Radio) The UK today said it is donating heavy machine guns and ammunition to Iraq to help fight Islamic State militants.

The Ministry of Defense said the nation is committed to assisting the Iraqi government and to help Kurdish forces defend themselves. The equipment is due to arrive in Iraq on Wednesday.

The news comes after Iraq created a new government, sharing posts between the Shia Arab majority, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

The Islamic State jihadist group has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria and in June declared the creation of a "caliphate", or Islamic state.

The Islamist extremist group – or IS - is persecuting members of non-Muslim faiths in the massive region of Iraq and Syria it now controls. Hundreds of thousands of religious minorities have fled, and thousands who didn't have been brutally killed.

Amongst them, tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped in the Sinjar Mountains in northern Iraq after they were driven from their homes, local officials say that at least 500 Yezidis, including 40 children, have been killed, and many more have been threatened with death.

Vian Dakheel, from the Yazidi community is an Iraqi Member of Parliament. She is currently participating in the Saint Egidio International Meeting for Peace taking place in Antwerp. She told Vatican Radio’s Francesca Sabatinelli that hers is a cry for help for her people who are risking genocide…

Listen to the interview:

Vian Dakheel says that at the moment the situation in Iraq is very difficult for everyone. Not only – has she said - for the Yazidis, but also for Shia and Sunni Muslims and for Christians. 

She says IS militants are killing everyone, but the Yazidi tragedy – she points out - is different because it is genocide.

She says IS militants are killing all the men and are taking the women and children.

In Antwerp for the annual Saint Egidio International Meeting for Peace, Dakheel says she is travelling the world with her plea for help: “I need to take my message to all, to China, Australia, America because this is a very big problem for my people” she said.

Dakheel says the International Community should step in and save Yazidi girls who are in the hands of the IS. She says: “there are many things we need from the International Community” who must come and protect the Yazidi people, some of whom may want to seek refuge in other countries.

To the question “Who is IS?” Dakheel says: “I don’t know. I think they are crazy people with a lot of money”. Perhaps – she says they are a branch of Al Qaeda. “They are not human, they are not animals” she says - she can’t describe them.

 “We need help” she said.     








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