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Demovictory9

(32,452 posts)
Tue Oct 29, 2019, 04:49 PM Oct 2019

For Yazidis, Baghdadi's death "doesn't feel like justice yet"

* Islamic State attacked Yazidi homeland in 2014

* Many Yazidis are now at Sharya camp in Iraq

* Residents are glad IS leader Baghdadi is dead

* Many want surviving IS militants brought to justice

By Raya Jalabi

SHARYA CAMP, Iraq, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death will mean nothing to 19-year-old rape victim Jamila unless the Islamic State militants who enslaved her are brought to justice.

Jamila, who asked not to be identified by her last name, is one of thousands of women from the Yazidi minority religion who were kidnapped and raped by IS after it mounted an assault on the Yazidi homeland in northern Iraq in August 2014.

"Even if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, it doesn't mean Islamic State is dead," Jamila told Reuters outside the tent that is now her temporary home in the Sharya camp for displaced Yazidis in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.

"This doesn't feel like justice yet," she said. "I want the men who took me, who raped me, to stand trial. And I want to have my voice heard in court. I want to face them in court ... Without proper trials, his death has no meaning."

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Inspired by his edicts to enslave and slaughter Yazidis, whom IS regard as infidels, his followers shot, beheaded and kidnapped thousands in a rampage which the United Nations called a genocidal campaign against them.

Along with thousands of other women and children, Jamila said she was enslaved by the militants and kept in captivity for five months in the city of Mosul along with her sister.

She was just 14 when she was seized. But her problems did not end after she and her sister managed to escape when, she said, their guards were high on drugs.

"When I first came back, I had a nervous breakdown and psychological problems for two years, so I couldn't go to school," she said.

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For some of the nearly 17,000 Yazidis at the Sharya camp, Baghdadi's death was a first step in that direction though they fear the IS fighters who are still alive.

Mayan Sinu, 25, can dream of a new life after the camp as she and her three children have been granted asylum by Australia. But she also wants the men who shot her husband in the legs and dragged him off to be brought to justice. He has been missing since the incident five years ago.

"I hope Baghdadi is suffering more than we ever did, and my God we suffered," said Sinu. "I wish he (Baghdadi) hadn't blown himself up so I could have slaughtered him myself with my bare hands." (Editing by Timothy Heritage)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yazidis-baghdadis-death-doesnt-feel-161550947.html

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