Co-Nobel laureate praises Yazidi survivors at human rights conference in Paris
129 views · Published 30 October 2018 · 2:47 · Indexed 29 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(25 Oct 2018) Foreign fighters, including many Europeans, took a leading role in carrying out the Islamic State group's atrocities against minority Yazidis, an international human rights group said Thursday, citing testimony and documentation from survivors of an organized system of killing and enslavement. In a report, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights emphasized how foreign fighters led organized rape and slavery devised by the Islamic State group's Iraqi hierarchy. It said the actions amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity, and called for the extremist group's members to be prosecuted as war criminals. In one online chat room, an Islamic State fighter offered to trade a Yazidi captive for a pair of Adidas sneakers. Another offered his gun. The group not only bought and sold Yazidi women and girls, but also young boys who would be taught to fight and indoctrinated to turn against their own people. Nadia Murad, co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize was among thousands of women and girls from the Yazidi minority who were kidnapped and enslaved in 2014. The rights group believes around half of the estimated 6,800 Yazidis taken captive are still missing. Women and girls from the minority who escaped described an organized system of slavery overseen by high-ranking foreign fighters. In 2016, The Associated Press reported that Islamic State had devised a system of photographing Yazidi girls and women, and had created a database both to prevent their escape and to facilitate exchanges between members of the group. Islamic State members in general face terrorism charges in quick trials in Iraq. The rights group wants them tried before an international tribunal or brought home to face charges, and for Yazidis to have a role in the reckoning. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/db571b6efa0b8ed64ceeaaf109276354
