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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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May 5th,
2007 - Video: Iraq Yazidi Girl Stoned for Loving Muslim |
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Video: Iraq Yazidi Girl
Stoned for Loving Muslim Cellphone videos show Iraq Yazidi minority mob stoning, kicking to
death 17-year-old girl. Middle East Online May 5, 2007 Arbil, Iraq - Cellphone
videos have appeared on the Internet showing an Iraqi mob stoning and kicking
to death a 17-year-old girl after she offended her minority community by
eloping with a Muslim man. Doaa Khalil Aswad was a
member of northern Iraq's Yazidi religious sect but, according to local
officials, she was murdered on April 7 by her brothers and uncles after she
allegedly converted to Islam. In the video - rapidly
spreading on the Internet - Aswad is shown lying in the road as men kick her
and throw a large lump of rock or concrete at her head. Her face is drenched in
blood but uniformed and armed officers of the Iraqi police stand by and do
nothing to prevent the attack. The slim, dark-haired girl
is wearing a red tracksuit top and black underwear during the beating At one point she struggles
to sit up and cover herself, but a man kicks her in the face knocking her
violently back to the ground. The assault continues for
several minutes and she does not appear to cry out nor resist her attackers. Members of a large crowd can
be seen filming the murder on their cellphones, some of them shouting or
kicking out at the cowering victim. Nobody tries to help her. When news of Aswad's murder
surfaced last month, it triggered an apparent revenge attack. On April 23, gunmen stopped
a bus carrying workers to her community, the village of Beshika 10 kilometres
(six miles) outside Mosul, dragged out 23 Yazidis and shot them dead. While it is a Kurdish
speaking area, Beshika lies outside northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous
region. Last week the United
Nations' quarterly report on human rights in Iraq expressed serious concern
over a rapid rise in so-called "honour killings" of women deemed to
have betrayed their families in Kurdish Iraq. Yazidis - who number some
500,000, mainly in northern Iraq - speak a dialect of Kurdish but follow
their own religion and have their own cultural traditions. They believe in God the
creator but their main focus of worship is Malak Taus, the chief of the
archangels, often represented by a peacock. Followers of other religions
know this angel as Lucifer or Satan, leading to popular prejudice that the
secretive Yazidis are devil-worshippers. Nevertheless, the community
has survived for centuries alongside its Muslim and Christian neighbours.
Now, however, sectarian war is gripping much of Iraq. External link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=20600 Yazidi girl’s murder sparks widespread condemnation The Globe May 5th, 2007 Fears of sectarian violence
between Muslims and Yazidis arise as incidents between the two continue to
escalate. Hundreds of women from
various parts of Kurdistan Region took to the streets of Erbil on Sunday to
protest the brutal killing of Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year-old Yazidi girl,
and Kurdistan government called for the murderers to be brought to justice. "We do strongly condemn
the killing of women under the pretext of honor and the killing and
mutilating of the body of Du'a on April 7, 2007," a statement released
by the protesters read. The rally came as police in
Bashiqa, a district northeast of Mosul where the incident took place, said
that two arrests have been made in the murder, and four others who have been
implicated, including two of the victim's uncles, have escaped. Around 40 women and feminist
organizations from various parts of Kurdistan Region organized the rally. "Taking revenge on
women under the pretext of honor is a terrorist act," read a banner
carried by the demonstrators. The protesters called upon
the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to take decisive action regarding the
incident, and work to stop honor killings and set a limitation for the power
of tribal chiefs. Meanwhile, describing Dua's
stoning to death as a "grave tragedy", a KRG statement released
yesterday called on Iraqi authorities to "take necessary measures in the
area where the crime was committed." Bashiqa is part of the
disputed areas between Kurdish and Iraqi governments and is currently under
Iraqi government's jurisdiction. The KRG cited amending
articles in Iraq penal code that deal with honor killing in 2002, as an
example of its determination to fight such crimes in Kurdistan. However, many
human rights groups accuse the KRG of still being lenient on individuals
involved in honor killing. The KRG said that it has
punished 40 people involved in honor-killings in Erbil and Dohuk provinces
over the past five years and that another 24 men are awaiting trial on
similar charges. The killing of Du'a has sparked
widespread condemnation inside and outside Kurdistan. "This crime has touched
off a desperate attempt to disrupt the peaceful coexistence between Muslim
and Yazidi Kurds, and the majority of those who carried out this crime are
now under arrest and will be tried according to law," Kamal Kirkuki,
Kurdistan Parliament's Deputy Speaker said to protestors on Sunday. Amnesty International, an
international organization that monitors human rights conditions, condemned
the murder "in the strongest terms" and called on Iraqi authorities
to take immediate steps to bring the perpetrators to justice. In case of a
trial, however, Amnesty International warned against a death penalty sentence
for the killers. Du'a was brutally killed by
dozens of young men in the sub-district of Bahzan (pat of Bashiqa district),
northeast of Mosul, because of her alleged relations with a young Sunni
Muslim boy. A gruesome video of the killing, posted on internet Web sites,
shows fanatic youths torturing her to death by beating her and later throwing
big concrete blocks, which weighed at least 10 kilos, on her back and head. There are conflicting
reports as to whether she converted to Islam, which may have led to her
death, but chief Yazidi leaders have denied her conversion, saying the
motives had only to do with honor issues. The killing sparked tensions
in the sectarian-mixed areas of Mosul province where Yazidis and Muslims have
lived together for centuries. A few days after Du'a's murder, an extremist
Sunni insurgent group executed 23 Yazidi workers on a road that links the
volatile city of Mosul to Bashiqa in the east. Another two Yazidi policemen
were killed in Mosul last Sunday as well. The incident is the second
in a series of sectarian incidents between the Yazidis and Muslims in the
area. Last year, a group of Muslim tribesmen attacked several Yazidi
buildings in Shekhan, a district east of Mosul, because of honor issues
sparked over the fate of a Muslim girl. These successive incidents
have sparked fears that a sectarian conflict may arise in the area between
Muslims and Yazidis. Yazidis are followers of an
ancient Mesopotamian faith that dates back thousands of years; their
population in Iraq is estimated to be around half a million. The Yazidis' Supreme
Spiritual Council issued a statement on Friday, April 27, in which it
condemned the murder of Du'a and described it as a "brutal and ugly
act." Kurdish authorities have
vowed to follow up on the issue by establishing an investigative committee. External link: http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc050507G.html |