Two-thirds of the population is still displaced due to the impact of conflicts and the absence of se

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[size=52]Two-thirds of the population is still displaced due to the impact of conflicts and the absence of services, reconstruction and compensation... A regional conflict and local clashes draw the map of forces and the reality of displacement and migration in Sinjar[/size]

[size=45]Two-thirds of the population is still displaced due to the impact of conflicts and the absence of services, reconstruction and compensation
. Regional conflict and local clashes that draw the map of forces and the reality of displacement and migration in Sinjar[/size]
[size=45]Maysir Adani and Saman Daoud
: “Our hopes were disappointed again.. We returned three years ago to Sinjar to establish a new life after we lost everything in 2014, and here we are fleeing again to escape the battles… This has become a land for local power struggles with different loyalties and a field for settling regional states’ conflicts, so how? Can we stay?”
The 30-year-old Yazidi, Qassem Ali, says, after he crossed in his old car with his family of four people, a positioning point for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces north of Sinuni, affiliated to Sinjar (120 km west of Mosul) towards the Kurdistan region, after obtaining permission to enter Dohuk governorate.
He adds, raising his hands and looking at the sky, "We will go to our relatives in Zakho.. What do we do? It is written that we have to spend the rest of our lives fleeing from the battles and being displaced in the camps."
The town of Sinuni (147 km west of Mosul) in early May 2022 witnessed intermittent armed clashes that lasted for two days, between the Iraqi army forces and fighters of the “Sinjar Resistance” units (Yeh Beh Shah), the majority of whose fighters are Yazidis and part of its formations fall under the legally recognized brigade of the Popular Mobilization But it is ideologically close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which supported its establishment in the fall of 2014 to confront ISIS.
The clashes were not the first, but they were the widest, during which four people were killed and ten wounded on both sides, which raised the residents’ fears of the collapse of the security situation in light of the weak state strength and the predominance of armed factions’ control in an area that includes, according to observers, more than 20,000 armed men.
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[size=45]Qassem had spent more than four years in (Jamshko camp) for the displaced in the city of Zakho, in the far north of the Kurdistan region, after fleeing with his family from Sinjar in August 2014 following the killings and kidnappings carried out by ISIS, which took control of the area before returning in 2017. He
says of that period, “The summer and winter seasons are in small, close-knit tents, and we endured everything, the poverty and pain of losing dozens of our loved ones, and we had hope to restore our lives, and to learn lessons from what happened to us.”
He adds, hitting his palms together: "Today, we are all desperate because of political differences. The people of Sinjar have been divided among the various forces, and there is no unit for them, and weapons are everywhere and in everyone's hands."
Sinjar district, with its extension north to the Turkish border, west to Syria, south to Badia and the Anbar desert and east to the strategic city of Mosul, the second largest city in the country, constitutes a point of local and regional conflict. Armed factions of different loyalties are battling for power there.
The latest clashes erupted after the Iraqi army attempted to control security points belonging to the Sinjar Resistance Units and the Yazidi Asayish, who refused to abandon their positions.
The tense security scene and armed conflicts for influence have not been absent from Sinjar since August 2014, when ISIS fighters attacked it and killed and kidnapped thousands of Yazidis and Shiite Turkmen, while about 300,000 people were displaced to the Kurdistan region, about two-thirds of them are still living in camps despite the passage of about seven years since the restoration of the region. .
Political researcher Adel Kamal says that many Arab and Kurdish forces are competing for territory there today, as well as regional countries such as Iran and Turkey, given the importance of the region.
He explained, "Iran considers Sinjar an important part of its strategic path towards Syria, or what its loyalists describe as the way of captives, while Turkey considers it a gateway for its incursion into the Turkmen areas in the Tal Afar district, adjacent to Sinjar, and a key to the city of Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad) and its historically lost state." .
Because of this, Kamal believes that “the judiciary has become divided into overlapping areas of influence, and it may take years before the conflicts in them are resolved.”
Sinjar district extends from the Syrian border in the west to the Badia, which extends to Anbar in the south, where the armed Sunni groups are from 2003 to 2017, and north to the Kurdistan region, which is ruled by the Democratic Party, and east to the city of Mosul, the largest and most important Sunni city, which includes at the same time a mixture of Arab, Kurdish, and Sunni Turkmen and Shiite.[/size]
[size=45]Escape through dirt roads
After hours of battles, the main roads were cut off by the warring parties, but thousands of people fleeing from the northern Sinjar compounds (Khansur, Sununi and Dokuri) infiltrated through secondary and dirt roads and reached the Kurdistan region in a scene that brought back memories of the escape from ISIS in the year 2014.
Salim, a university graduate, was forced to stop his car, which was crammed with seven passengers, when his young son jumped out of it after a fit of crying. He seemed unwilling to speak, before muttering, “This is our situation. Everyone knows it, crying, flight, and permanent displacement.”
He adds, trying to calm his son, who has not yet reached the age of four: "We fled from my years...the raging struggle for power between several armed parties prevents us from restoring our normal lives and raises the fears of the rest in the camps of returning."
Salim, who returned in 2017 and renovated the family’s destroyed house as a result of the war of liberation from ISIS, using his savings that he had collected from his work for years as a daily-paid construction worker, “After the recurring clashes, it became clear that solutions are absent and that our simple dreams will not come true.”
The young Yazidi reports his observations, “The sounds of bullets were heard for hours and everywhere, the main roads were closed, and the clashes reached some residential neighborhoods where the gunmen spread... We saw medium weapons, and the army brought in armored vehicles and heavy weapons. If a quarter of that force appeared in 2014, it would not have fallen.” Sinjar will never be in the hands of ISIS.”[/size]
[size=45]Taking a quick look at Sinjar, we find that it is crowded with competing armed forces. In the city center and its outskirts, Iraqi army units are deployed and Iraqi flags are fluttering on the roofs of government departments and main buildings, while the flags of the various popular mobilization factions and Yazidi forces of different orientations are raised in the sides of the city.
The Popular Mobilization factions close to Iran, which is the actual ruler of the region and the decision-maker in it, as confirmed by the people of the region, extend their control over the south of Sinjar, near the border strip with Syria and east to the city of Tal Afar, one of its strongholds.
As for Sinjar Mountain in the north, along its extension to the west and the surrounding residential complexes, the Yezidi Sinjar Resistance Units are scattered ideologically and ideologically loyal to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which opposes Turkey. Not far away, in the northeastern Sinjar district, the Kurdistan Democratic Party's units are in control, which hope to regain their lost control of the district again.
Saeed Ibrahim, 38, another Yazidi, had returned to the town of Sinuni in mid-2018 and opened a small men's clothing store to secure his income for his family of five. They ended up again in the camp.
He says with some sadness, “There were violent clashes at night, during which they used all kinds of weapons. I knew that from the different sounds, the fire was all around us. Then they closed the main roads, so we exited through the same dirt roads that we escaped from in 2014 to escape from ISIS.”
Ibrahim accuses the PKK-affiliated Sinjar Resistance Units of exploiting the families and the presence among them during their confrontation with the Iraqi army: “If a civilian was killed, they would accuse the army... The two sides, especially the army, had to tell the families to leave before the start of their operation and the shooting that spread terror and chaos.”
The Yazidi, who filled his car with all the supplies and household necessities he could, continues, perhaps in reference to his decision not to return again to an area where security could collapse at any moment in the presence of rival forces: “It seems that we have to spend all our lives in a permanent escape... It is very difficult. Returning to Sinjar... Really, dying in the camps is better than dying by a stray bullet.”
Ibrahim, frustrated at having to leave his home and shop, said: “We were displaced for fear of our lives. A few days ago, two civilians were wounded in Dokri by stray bullets.. We no longer trust any party claiming to defend and protect us.” He paused for a while, then completed in a tone of design, “I will offer a local for sale and settle in Kurdistan. This is a dangerous game.”[/size]
[size=45]Intersecting statements and statements
Commenting on the Sinjar clashes, the Iraqi Army’s Security Media Cell, in a statement, held the Sinjar Resistance Units responsible, known as (Yeh Beh Shah), and demanded them to stop what it described as their “outlaw movements.”
She stated that on May 2, a group of elements of this force closed a number of roads linking the center of Sinuni district and Khansour complex with the neighboring compounds and villages, and set up security barriers and prevented the movement of citizens, which prompted the military units in the West Nineveh Operations Command and the units with them to intervene, but they She was subjected to a “heavy firing,” which prompted her to respond to the sources of fire “according to the rules of engagement,” to impose the rule of law and order and reopen the roads. According to the statement.
On the following day, May 2, 2022, the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army, Major General Abdul Amir Yarallah and Deputy Joint Operations Major General Abdul Amir al-Shammari, accompanied by the Commander of the Ground Forces and the Director of Military Intelligence, visited Sinjar district in order to calm the situation, according to what was circulated in the media.
However, informed sources in the Operations Command confirmed that the purpose of the visit was to give the armed factions affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party a deadline to leave Sinjar and hand over their positions, but on the ground this was not achieved and each party returned to its previous positions.
A few days earlier, the Joint Operations Command had announced the arrival of large “military reinforcements” to Sinjar to “enforce the law.” In a statement, she added, she would not allow "the presence of armed groups in the judiciary, and would not allow any force to impose its will in it."[/size]
[size=45]When we asked the sources we contacted in the Operations Command about who caused the problem, they said that they are in control of the decision in the 80th Regiment of the Popular Mobilization (the leaders of the Sinjar Resistance Units), and they are people loyal to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, not members of the regiment.
The Sinjar Resistance Units (Yeh Beh Shah), which had refused to implement the Sinjar Agreement in its declared form, criticized the position of the Iraqi government, and denounced, through its spokesmen, the use of the army to confront forces they said had been formed to confront ISIS and defend the Yazidis, who are today part of the crowd.
A source from within these units informed us that on April 17, 2022, the “Al-Kazemi government” pushed army forces to attack its security points with the aim of controlling those points, which prompted them to respond.
The source, who preferred not to be named, pointed out that despite launching dialogues at the time to reach a solution, "the Iraqi government continued to mobilize forces and send heavy weapons to attack again on our sites in residential complexes in northern Sinjar, forcing us to cut off some roads to prevent its progress."[/size]
[size=45]Clashes also took place between the forces of Asayish Ezidkhan and the Iraqi army on April 18 and 19, 2022, after the latter asked its members to evacuate a military post near the town of Sinuni.
The confrontations as a whole, resulted in the killing of one member of (Yeh Beh Shah) and the injury of three others, in addition to the injury of 20 soldiers and a number of civilians. The army also arrested 35 militants affiliated with (Yeh Beh Shah), in return it captured 47 Iraqi soldiers. Later, prisoners were exchanged between the two sides.
Among the accusations (Yeh Beh Shah) of the Iraqi Prime Minister instructing him to launch these attacks to please Turkey and with the support of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which hopes to re-establish its control over Sinjar, declaring its rejection of “attempts to disarm the Yazidis and end the presence of their forces at a time when Iraq is going through serious crises threatening the return of the movements.” Extremism,” according to statements made by the officials of those units.
(Yeh Beh Shah) says that “the problem of Sinjar is not military but political,” and that the Yazidis have the right to have a “self-force” to defend them after what happened in 2014, when the army and the Peshmerga abandoned them, which enabled ISIS to control their areas and carry out massive killing operations in them. And they repeat in their statements, “We will protect ourselves against any attacks and let whatever happens.”[/size]
[size=45]Turkish-Iranian conflict
A writer and journalist from Sinjar, who has been following the transformations of the scene in the region since 2003, believes that the clashes between the competing local armed forces in Sinjar are, in depth, a regional conflict whose main players are Iran and Turkey.
The journalist, who preferred not to be named due to the sensitivity of his position, explains: “Both Iran and Turkey have their own interests in controlling Sinjar. Ankara is interested in the region and wants to impose its control over it. For security, it forms an important triangle for it between three countries, and economically it is a strategic path to the land line that it wants to extend from Its lands go to Mosul and later to Kirkuk and the rest of the Sunni areas through Turkmenistan’s Tal Afar, and for Iran it is a strategic, security and economic road towards Syria, which is an important area of ​​influence amid a Sunni environment that is not loyal to it.”
The journalist ruled out that the local and regional conflict over Sinjar would end soon, suggesting that the region would witness many rounds of conflict between two parties, the first supported by Iran and represented by the Shiite crowd with the Yazidi crowd and in harmony with the forces loyal to the Workers' Party. The second is supported by Turkey and is represented by the Democratic Party and some Sunni forces, in addition to the formations of the Iraqi army that want to impose the authority of the federal government on the region in the face of the authority of the crowd, he said.[/size]
[size=45]Kurdish writer Saman Sinjari agrees with this vision, and says that Turkey wants in the long run to cut off communication between the Kurds of Iraq and the Kurds of Syria by controlling Sinjar, and this achieves its project by weakening the Kurdistan region and stifling the Kurdish self-administration in Syria.
He points out that Turkey, that is, "uses the pretext of eliminating the PKK as a terrorist organization in its movements, while Iran wants to maintain its strong influence there to ensure security supply lines and even to support projects to extend energy lines from Iran to Syria across the region."
Sinjari warns of the complexities and the overlapping of forces and the intersection of interests in the file. The Kurdistan Workers Party, which is a faction that is fighting Turkey and has a wing known as the Free Life Party that is fighting Iran, is now coordinating through the forces close to it in Iraq with Tehran to launch attacks on the Turkish military presence in The Kurdistan region and northern Iraq, citing the successive attacks on the Turkish Bashiqa base in northern Mosul, which was claimed by a faction under the name “Ahrar Sinjar” by two drones that killed one person.
Sinjari believes that the Sinjar Agreement did not find its way to implementation because it did not take into account the balances on the ground in the presence of the mobilization and the Yazidi forces that refuse to re-establish the control of the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party over the decision there, and that the current scene is “a temporary truce without a clear vision and plans.” solution in light of the existing balance of power there.”[/size]
[size=45]Ten thousand new displaced
hours after the Sinjar clashes on May 2, 2022, the Director of the Department of Migration and Displacement in Dohuk, Dayan Bir Jaafar, announced that 650 families from Sinjar have arrived in Dohuk Governorate in the Kurdistan Region, comprising 3,570 individuals, but the numbers quickly escalated to more than 1,700 family. At the time, the governor of Dohuk revealed the arrival of 10 thousand displaced people.
About two weeks after the clashes stopped, the Immigration Department announced the return of 200 families to their areas in Sinjar “to join their jobs and businesses there,” while the majority of the displaced remained with their relatives in camps or homes in the cities of Dohuk and Zakho.
The new IDPs are added to the former IDPs in the camps. According to the statistics of the Directorate of Migration and Displacement in Dohuk Governorate, out of a total of 135,844 displaced people distributed in 15 camps in Dohuk, only 33,724 people returned to Sinjar, while 102,120 remained in the camps.
Commenting on the recent wave of displacement, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Yazidi activist Nadia Murad tweeted, "After years of displacement, new returnees are once again forced to flee their homes due to armed clashes. I call on the international community to intervene and work with the Iraqi government to resolve persistent security issues in the region and protect civilians.”[/size]
[size=45]Infrastructures and Compensation
In addition to security conflicts, there are two other decisive factors in the issue of stability in Sinjar. The first is the economic situation, where job opportunities are scarce, and the second includes the provision of basic services and the launch of reconstruction operations.
A report issued by the Norwegian Refugee Council in May 2022 states that the widespread destruction and security and social tensions impede the return of about two-thirds of the people of Sinjar to their homes, noting that 99% of those whose homes were damaged and who submitted requests for compensation to the government have not received compensation so far. The report added that "about 193,000 people, including Yezidis, Arabs and Kurds, are still living in a state of displacement."[/size]
[size=45]The report indicates that the recent clashes led to the displacement of more than 10,260 people, most of whom lived through two or three previous rounds of displacement, and the results of a survey of the opinions of 1,500 displaced people conducted before the last wave of displacement, regarding the assessment of the displaced people’s readiness to return, reveal that “64% of them said that Their homes were significantly damaged, while 32% expressed concern about the security situation.”
Laila Qassem, a displaced Yazidi woman in Dohuk, whose house in Sinjar has been destroyed, says, “Most of the people of Sinjar are poor and cannot rebuild their destroyed homes, and the government has not compensated them, and the services there are poor. In fact, officials in Nineveh say frankly that they will not carry out long-term campaigns. No longer the population.”[/size]
[size=45]The suspended Sinjar Agreement
in October 2020 The Federal Police has appointed 2,500 members of Sinjar residents to be the owners of the local police to protect the area.
But the agreement faced difficulties in implementation, noted by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq, Jeanine Plaschaert, in her report submitted to the Security Council on May 17, 2022, saying, “While the local population urgently needs to rebuild their lives, they still face unforeseen obstacles. Reasonable due to disagreement over security arrangements, public service delivery, and unified management.”[/size]
[size=45]The representative of the United Nations also said, “Since the signing of the agreement, I have called for its rapid implementation, but it is clear that the opposite is what is happening. So far, no agreement has been reached on choosing a new independent mayor (for the judiciary), and the funds for the local security force are still withheld, perhaps due to interference with the appointment procedures.” unclear.”
Referring to the importance of solving the problem of fighters who were forced to join armed factions, Blackshart said in her report, “With regard to these appointment procedures, I stress once again the importance of adopting a practical and realistic path, since not everyone who joined - other forces - in the past can simply It is treated the same way. And we must realize that some of them, in the absence of state authority, simply chose to have their own safety net, identity and income to support their families.”
Plasschaert criticized the Baghdad and Erbil governments for their poor communication with (local communities) in Sinjar, and said, "It is also important to note that Sinjar has increasingly become an arena for external and local spoilers. Thus, the situation will not see any improvement," noting that "the lack of clear coordination and implementation mechanisms The dominance of partisan interests greatly impedes progress.”[/size]
[size=45]Youth movement amid the jungle of weapons
After the recent clashes and in light of the predominance of partisan interests and the weakness of civil society organizations, young activists launched initiatives to end the escalation and propose new solutions to end the conflicts in Sinjar. The initiatives included vigils in public squares in Sinjar and Sinuni, and messages addressed to decision-makers.
The first demands of the youth movement were the removal of all armed forces outside the residential complexes and the retention of the local police, in addition to solving the dual administration between Baghdad and Erbil, while activists outside the movement indicate that the final solution “may lie in the formal inclusion of the Sinjar resistance units in the Iraqi forces.”
But the voices of the youth remain muted in the face of partisan interests and the ambitions of regional countries and amid the jungle of armed forces in the region, says Jalal Hassan, one of the participants in the movement. “In the absence of state institutions in Iraq that preserve sovereignty, security and the supreme interest, solutions cannot be produced, so you find The people of Sinjar, including Yazidis and Muslims, refuse to return.”[/size]
[size=45]I returned to the same tent.
Sheikh Khalaf, 41, is one of the displaced from the area. After three years of settling in Sinjar, he returned to his previous tent in which he lived for five years in Essien camp in the Sheikhan area of ​​the Nineveh Plain. He says, "External interventions will not stop in our areas, with people fighting on their behalf.. We have lost hope that Sinjar will be safe.. They are fighting with heavy weapons as if they are enemies of each other."
As for Talal Haskany, a young man interested in the reality and future of the Yazidis, he says that “people have the right to flee from Sinjar, in addition to the poor economic situation, security is threatened by conflicts.” He added, "They fear for their lives and want a better independent building for their children. Circumstances are ambiguous and renewed fighting is expected at any moment."
Haskany sees the need to leave the option of staying or returning to each family without pressure, but the majority of Yazidis, the young people in particular, want to emigrate.
Diler, a twenty-four-year-old man, was standing in the middle of a dust storm near the Suhaila bridge that separates the Kurdistan region from the Sinjar regions, saying goodbye to his family, who had left their camp two years ago on the outskirts of Dohuk and returned to their village in Sinjar. He says while smoking, "I told them there is no hope and no future there...Any sane person cannot survive amidst conflicts and the desire of each party to impose its authority."
Diler does not find a solution and believes that all he can do is to try again to immigrate to Europe. Last fall, he spent two months in Belarus and Turkey, trying to cross, but he did not succeed, so he went back. The young man adds, as he prepares the back basin of a car that was waiting for him to put his belongings in it: “I will migrate, there is no other solution.”
According to Yazidi organizations, about 150,000 Yazidis have migrated from Iraq to European countries since 2014, and this number is equivalent to about a third of the total number of Yazidis who were living in Iraq before 2014.
Diller continues, removing dust from the front car window during the minutes of his waiting, "We have no future here. The Baghdad government is weak and helpless, and the Kurds have failed to administer and protect Sinjar, and the area has become a regional battleground in which the battles will continue."
* The report was completed with the support of the Nerij Foundation for Investigative Investigations.[/size]
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