Evidence of meeting #38 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was kurdish.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you Mr. Chair.
Madam Saeed, I would like to get clarity from you on an issue. We've heard a little bit this morning regarding the role of the Kurds and the Kurdish government. We have a difference of opinion or flavour from our two witnesses here.
You work with the Kurdish government. If we went back one year, in your area, who was responsible for security? A year ago, what role did the Kurds in your area play in terms of security and responsibility, and what role do they play now?
10:30 a.m.
Member of Iraqi Parliament, As an Individual
One year ago, Sinjar was one of the places that had not agreed to be under the security of the Iraqi government or the Kurd government. There was some conflict about this, about who was responsible for the security there. But the Kurd government and the peshmerga were responsible for the security of most of the areas there.
I don't know whether this is the main thing you wanted to know from your question.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Yes it is, actually.
I'm just wondering who is responsible for security in the area. You talked about 1,200 fighters on the mountain. Generally in the area, what role do the Kurds play, or does ISIS control the area?
10:30 a.m.
Member of Iraqi Parliament, As an Individual
Now Sinjar is not under the control of the Kurds. It is under the control of ISIS. Only the fighters on the mountain of Sinjar are fighting ISIS. But Sinjar as an area is under the control of ISIS.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Okay. Thank you very much. That brings us some clarity.
We've talked a little bit about civilians. I'm wondering if you can tell us what is currently known about the Yazidi civilians who have been taken captive. You've talked a little bit about people being trafficked and that kind of thing. What do you know about your people who have been taken captive?
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I'm just wondering if you can tell us what you know about the Yazidi civilians who have been taken captive by ISIS, who are prisoners. What can you tell us about that? You've talked a little bit about human trafficking, but what else can you tell us about that? And perhaps our other guests can speak to that as well.
10:30 a.m.
Member of Iraqi Parliament, As an Individual
We don't have any information about the people who have been kidnapped by ISIS. But according to some girls who have been released by ISIS...by some of their fight.
10:30 a.m.
Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International
To go back to the hostage situation, I think I have more information than Ms. Saeed. The hostages were in four different places. They were in Kocho, in two villages in Tal Afar, in one of the former U.S. air bases south of Mosul, and other areas. They moved families who did not have their men with them. When they captured my family, they took all the men—my three uncles, my brother, and all the relatives—and they separated the girls and sold the girls to Syria. They took three of my sisters, and they sold them to Syria as slaves.
The rest of the family were in Tal Afar until a month ago, and they moved all of them—I've been tracking that.... They moved all the families who did not have their men with them to Syria. I talked to him; I hadn't heard from him in a month, and I talked to him yesterday. Some of my family, my grandmother and my aunt.... One family in Syria bought them. I talked to the guy. They gave him my phone number, and he talked to me yesterday on my way here. He wanted to make a deal with me. I have my family, my mom and my siblings. Of course, we don't know anything about the men; they are probably already dead, but the rest—my mom...my grandmother, my aunt, and my three uncles' wives with their kids—are about 40 people.
They told me they were going to go look for the rest of my family and bring them all together. For each of the family, we have to pay $10,000 for them to go and collect all of the family. All of them were together, but when they took them to Syria, they sold them separately. As of right now, this is the situation with the hostages, the latest situation and the latest news of the hostages.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you, Mr. Haider.
We'll go over to Mr. Garneau for five minutes, please.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We hear in the media that when ISIS captures people, depending on who they are, sometimes it gives them a choice to convert to its perverse set of values and beliefs or to be killed. In the case of the Yazidis, as I understand it, there is no choice: they either kill you or enslave you, one of the two, so that's a particularly harsh treatment at the hands of ISIS.
I want to get back to what Ms. Saeed described as about 400,000, I guess you could call them refugees, who had fled from the Sinjar area and who are looking for assistance in refugee camps. Given the fact that, depending on the numbers you believe, there are probably over a million refugees from other minorities, religious or ethnic, in the area, I am trying to get a sense of whether Yazidi refugees are being discriminated against versus other refugees. Conditions are miserable for everyone, but is there discrimination among refugees in the Kurdish area based on who they are?
I would like to direct that question to Ms. Saeed first. Because you are an Iraqi member of Parliament, you may have that information.
I'd also like to hear from Mr. Haider.
10:35 a.m.
Member of Iraqi Parliament, As an Individual
All the refugee situations here are bad but according to the Yazidi refugees it's worse because we don't have any help or any access to help. The Christians are getting some help from the Kurds or from organizations here that can help them, but we don't have any such institutes specially for Yazidis to help us in person. This is the first point.
The Yazidis left their home and their place suddenly, in a matter of hours. They were told they had to leave or be killed, so they were not able to take clothing, any money, or anything to protect themselves from bad weather. They could not even take their cars. They left their houses with only the clothes they were wearing. They were not able to take anything with them.
They were not like the other refugees who had been told they had a few days to leave their houses. They were able to take some aids, some money, some clothing with them when they left their houses.
We also have some people taken as slaves and some who were kidnapped. We don't know anything about them. Also, many of our people have been killed in cold blood there in Sinjar who did not have time to leave as ISIS attacked them.
I think all these points make our situation worse than the others.
10:40 a.m.
Assistant to the Chairman, Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International
In the Kurdistan region, as Ms. Saeed and I mentioned, there are some minorities like the Christians. The Catholic Church will provide them with a lot of aid. They have a backup, but in the Yazidis case, nobody is going to back us up unless some countries like Canada or the United States or the United Nations in general send us some aid, if that aid gets through.
There is another important point, as my colleagues mentioned. Some of our people, our families, have lost all their documents. They don't have a single ID card to be identified as Yazidi or Iraqi or whoever they are. The Kurdish government doesn't want to issue new ID cards to them.
This is the fact about the KRG, the Kurdish regional government. The Kurdistan region in Iraq is in better shape than the Kurdish region in Syria, and the refugees in Syria are in better shape than they are in the Kurdish region, and I feel ashamed to say I'm a refugee in Iraq, because Iraq is my home. There are not enough words to express my feeling for such a hideous situation. Nothing can be worse than being a refugee in your own country. People don't get enough food. People don't get their ID card issued to them. Three days ago there was a protest in Shariya camp to better their living conditions. The Kurdish security forces shot four of them. They didn't kill them; they were wounded, and there were witnesses. If you believe in democracy and freedom of speech, then why are you shooting people? You can use better methods than that. We've had enough of using violence against innocent people who are asking for their rights, not to participate in your government, not to participate to overthrow either the central government or the regional government.
All they want is to live. Over one million Yazidis are scattered between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, homeless, yet they are the natives in their land. They are the owners. Now they become the lodgers or far worse than that, homeless.
Also, as my colleagues here mentioned and brought to my attention, the Shabak are a minority. They are Shia from Iran and the Iraqi government supports them. Everybody has a backup except the Yazidis. The Kurds are claiming the Yazidis are part of them. Then where's the aid? Is that how you deal with and treat your supporters?
Thank you very much.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you.
I want to say thank you very much to our witnesses today.
To Ms. Saeed in Iraq, thank you very much for talking to us today. We realize what an important role you play as a member of the Iraqi Parliament. Thank you so much for that.
To our colleagues here, thank you for taking the time to drive here to talk to us about that.
Rabbi, thank you as well for your testimony.
10:40 a.m.
Member of Iraqi Parliament, As an Individual
Excuse me. Can I have a minute just to clarify something?
10:40 a.m.
Member of Iraqi Parliament, As an Individual
About what has been said about the Kurdish government here, I think there was some conflict about the subject. In person now, I want to clarify some facts.
I disagree with being in a place where they are underestimating what the Kurds' institutions and government have done for us. Now all the Yazidis are refugees in the Kurdistan region. They are protecting us. They are saving us. They are fighting ISIS with us.
Now the Kurdish government has started to make IDs and passports for all the Yazidi refugees who are in Kurdistan. They are helping us with humanitarian aid and with security. This I want to be clear for all of you. I think there was some misunderstanding and some conflict about these facts.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
10:45 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much.
With that, I'm going to adjourn the meeting. Thank you.