LONDON: A new documentary highlighting the precarious conditions the Yazidi people continue to live under in the Sinjar district of Iraq was released in mid-August on the eigth year commemorating the Yazidi genocide.
“This Is Still Genocide” follows the efforts of Yazidi survivors and other members of the community who are still struggling to rebuild their lives after a massacre in August 2014, during which Daesh forces killed and abducted thousands of Yazidi men, women and children.
The short film, directed by Mohamad Chreyteh, was commissioned, funded and co-produced by social-investment platform the The Zovighian Partnership.
Lynn Zovighian, the co-founder and managing director of the organization, told Arab News: “On the eighth (anniversary) of the massacre at Kocho, which marked the killing of more than 400 Yazidi men and the kidnapping of many women and children, I am very humbled and truly honored to announce the launch of ‘This Is Still Genocide,’ the first Yazidi-led short documentary.
“I believe it was imperative that we co-create a Yazidi public-advocacy asset that centers on survivor voices to drive national and international accountability for Sinjar and all Sinjaris.”
Described by the producvers as the first of its kind, the documentary was made possible by the assistance of Yazda, a Yazidi community group that helped the filmmakers to secure the support and participation of the Yazidi people and encouraged them to share their stories and describe the experiences of the community in the eight years since the massacre.
Yazidis are a religious minority who predominantely inhabit Kurdistan, a region in West Asia, Armenia and Turkey. A majority of the estimated 350,000 Yazidis living in northern Iraq have long been persecuted because of their faith, which has its roots in Mesopotamia.
In 2014, Daesh carried out a massacre targeting the Yazidi people, during which 5,000 people were killed, thousands of women and children were forced into sexual slavery, and 500,000 people fled their homeland.
The documentary reveals how, as a result of the precarious socioeconomic conditions in the area and a lack of action from the Iraqi government and the international community, the city of Sinjar and surrounding towns and villages have become unsafe for the Yazidi communities that historically lived there.
“Today, everything is urgent, from security and representation in Sinjar to infrastructure, housing, basic services, economic redevelopment, education, health, and an end to the permanence of the internally displaced persons camps,” Zovighian said.
The documentary sheds light on the atrocities committed by Daesh and investigates the obstruction of justice for the Yazidi people, and calls on the international community to take action.
Senior investigative judge Ayman Mustapha, commenting on the lack of a national plan by the Iraqi government to coordinate the investigation into the massacre, said: “The mission of the investigating committee is to gather evidence, investigate and build cases. However, no judiciary body exists to take these cases to court.”
Haider Elias, the co-founder and president of Yazda, said at the premiere of the film: “To the international community: We need your support more than any other community and more than any other time. We are calling for your help; either help the Yazidi people stay and resettle them in their homes, or help us leave this country.”
Murad Ismael, a co-founder of Yazda and founder of Sinjar Academy, which aims to help communities recover through the provision of quality education, said: “This is a powerful documentary depicting the state of the Yazidi community eight years after the start of the genocide. It left me in tears and probably will do the same to you.
“But we should not close our eyes to a people who collectively suffer. It is necessary to tell this story once again because the world has moved on, while the Yazidi community cannot.”
