Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— The political wing of Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, the Group of Communities in Kurdistan KCK, accused the Massoud Barzani-led Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of preventing Yazidis from returning to their homes in Sinjar (Shingal) in northwest Iraq.
The KCK Foreign Relations Committee in a statement on Tuesday responded to Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who earlier said the PKK was preventing Yazidis from returning to Sinjar.
The committee denied Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) had prevented aid from coming into Sinjar and denied the statements made by the KRG premier.
“YBS fighters have never prevented aid into Sinjar. It is the KDP which prevented aid into Sinjar by the closure of the Semalka border gate where assistance was transferred to Sinjar,” the statement said.
“The duty of both the KDP and the PKK and of all other Kurdish political forces is to achieve Yazidis self-government and self-defense there,” the statement added.
During the Conference of the Future Independence of Kurdistan, Challenges and Opportunities, held at the American University of Kurdistan in Duhok, KRG premier Nechirvan Barzani said the PKK has complicated the situation in Sinjar by settling in.
“A reason that displaced people won’t return to Sinjar, and that the town remains un-constructed, is the PKK. These people are not certain of their lives, the PKK must understand that,” he said.
Islamic State group has captured most parts of the Yazidi Sinjar district in northwest Iraq on August 3, 2014 which led thousands of Kurdish families to flee to Mount Sinjar, where they were trapped in it and suffered from significant lack of water and food, killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidis as well as rape and captivity of thousands of women.
Those who stay behind are subjected to brutal, genocidal acts: thousands killed, hundreds buried alive, and countless acts of rape, kidnapping and enslavement are perpetuated against Yazidi women. To add insult to injury, IS fighters ransack and destroy ancient Yazidi holy sites.
According to Human Rights organizations, thousands of Yazidi Kurdish women and girls have been forced to marry or been sold into sexual slavery by the IS jihadists.
A Yazidi member of Iraqi parliament Vian Dakhil, said in August that 3,770 Kurdish Yazidi women and children still in Islamic State captivity.
Kurdish forces including PKK, backed by Coalition warplanes, declared victory over Islamic State (IS) in Sinjar on Nov. 13, 2015 after more than a year of fighting over the mainly-Yazidi district.
Source: Ekurd.net