A resolution recognizing the genocide committed in 2014 against the Yazidis of Iraq by the Islamic State jihadist group was approved by the German parliament on Thursday (19/1).

Also, the parliament proposed a series of measures to support this Kurdish-speaking minority. All MPs present voted in favor of the text submitted jointly by the governing coalition and the conservative opposition Christian Democratic Party (CDU).

IS mainly aimed at the complete extermination of the Yazidi community. More than 5,000 Yazidis were brutally tortured and murdered by the Islamic State, especially in 2014, the resolution said.

Men were forced to Islam and those who refused were immediately executed or deported, while forced labor was imposed. Girls and women were enslaved, raped, and sold, and the resolution continues. Consequently, the Bundestag recognizes the crimes committed against the Yazidi community as genocide.

Yazidi Nadia Mourad, who won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, welcomed the fact that Germany is leading by example and called on all governments that have not yet done so to formally recognize the genocide.

Many representatives of the Kurdish minority and non-governmental organizations were present at the meeting. Belgium, Australia and the Netherlands have already recognized the Yazidi genocide. Yet, what is important about the German resolution is that it includes measures aimed at eliminating the consequences of the genocide, Yazidi activist and defender, Mirza Dinagi, commented in a statement.

In the text, the German government is asked, among others, to proceed with the prosecution of suspects located in Germany, to financially support the collection of evidence in Iraq, but also to help restore the Yazidi crops that were destroyed.

In November, a German court found an Iraqi jihadist guilty of genocide against the Yazidis. A German woman, allegedly a member of IS, is currently on trial in Koblenz, accused of enslaving a Yazidi woman in Iraq and Syria between 2016-19.

Source: CNN Greece 

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