Violence stalks Iraq's
minorities By Mohammed A Salih
IRBIL - The deadly suicide attacks on the
Yazidi minority in northern Iraq earlier this
month are expected to worsen ethnic and sectarian
tensions. The suicide bombings in Kahtaniya and
al-Jazeera villages in northern Nineveh province
on August 14 left more than 400 dead and at least
200 injured. These were the most lethal attacks
since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March, 2003.
The US military says al-Qaeda is
attempting to pit local Yazidi Kurds against
Muslim Arabs. Yazidis speak of their "pro-
Kurdistan tendencies" as the
major provocation for the attacks. They fear this
will make them targets for more attacks.
"Terrorists will attack every one who is
not with them," Ido Babasheikh, advisor to the
Iraqi president on Yazidi affairs told Inter Press
Service (IPS). "In terms of Yazidis, since they
[al-Qaeda] consider us to be both Kurds and
infidels, we are more likely to be a target
again."
Yazidis are followers of an
ancient Mesopotamian religion. They worship Malak
Taus, or the peacock angel, whom many Muslims and
Christians view as Satanic. The vast majority of
Yazidis, numbering about half a million, are
ethnic Kurds. The Yazidis are spread over several
Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Syria,
and also over the central Asian republics Armenia
and Georgia.
Other religious minorities
like Christians and Sabean-Mandaens (followers of
John the Baptist) have also been attacked by armed
groups. Iraq is now a particularly dangerous
country for minorities. Unlike major communities,
they do not have armed groups to protect them.
Babasheikh called on the Kurdish and Iraqi
governments as well as US forces to protect them
from "terrorists".
The brutal bombings
aroused nationwide sympathy for the Yazidi
community. Yazidi leaders called for restraint
among their followers. Following the attacks, the
Kurdish government declared a day of national
mourning in the three neighboring provinces Irbil,
Sulaimaniya and Dohuk.
The
Yazidi-dominated areas in Nineveh province are
highly important because they are part of the
"disputed areas" between Kurds and Arabs. A
referendum scheduled by the end of this year will
give locals a say in whether they want to be a
part of the neighboring and autonomous Kurdistan
region or stay with the Iraqi government.
Kurds say the Yazidi areas were subjected
to demographic changes during the regime of former
president Saddam Hussein as part of his
Arabization program, under which tens of thousands
of non-Arabs were dislodged from strategic areas
and replaced by Arab settlers.
Kurdistan
President Massoud Barzani, who was in Baghdad to
discuss the political situation with other Iraqi
leaders, accused the "intelligence services of
neighboring countries" of carrying out the
attacks.
"Iraqi government and coalition
forces need to put a limit to these aggressions
against Kurds," Barzani said. "From now on, we are
no longer going to tolerate this situation." He
ordered 350 Kurdish Peshmarga fighters to the
area.
Several Yazidis told IPS that
residents of Gir Uzeir and Sipa Sheikh Khidir
districts had been asked by al-Qaeda insurgents to
leave the area.
The large-scale operations
by Iraqi and US forces in Baghdad and other
central provinces are said to have pushed many
insurgents to shift to Kirkuk and Mosul in the
north. That could bring new unrest to Nineveh
province where the number of attacks was quite
low.
The attacks dealt a blow to the
efforts of Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders to find a
solution to the political and security crises.
They also highlighted the inability of the current
security plans to destroy insurgents' offensive
capacity.
Kurds have so far been mainly on
the sidelines of sectarian violence in Iraq. But
after the new attacks in the north, many are
asking how long they can stay out of the conflict
trap.
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