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          UN: IS Raped, Enslaved, Killed Yazidis in Genocide Campaign

   by VOA News

   United Nations investigators say a systematic campaign of rape, slavery
   and killing by Islamic State militants against Yazidis amounts to
   genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

   The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a [1]report Thursday
   detailing an intentional campaign by Islamic State to eliminate the
   majority of the world's Yazidi population located around Sinjar, Iraq.

   Mass murders

   "Genocide has occurred and is ongoing," said commission chairman Paulo
   Pinheiro. "ISIS has subjected every Yazidi woman, child or man that it
   has captured to the most horrific of atrocities."

   ''Islamic State fighters surged into Sinjar in August 2014, killing
   hundreds of Yazidis including the summary execution of men and boys who
   refused to convert to Islam.Those who escaped the initial violence fled
   up Mount Sinjar only to be besieged by the militants and struggle to
   survive with a shortage of food, water and medicine.

   That offensive is what pushed the United States to launch its coalition
   airstrike campaign against Islamic State targets with an initial
   priority of freeing the trapped Yazidis.

   Purifying force
   The U.N. says Islamic State is still holding more than 3,200 Yazidi
   women and children, with the women kept as sexual slaves while boys are
   indoctrinated as new fighters for the group.The report cites cases of
   girls killing themselves in order to avoid being sold to Islamic State
   fighters and says those who try to instead escape are subjected to
   extreme violence that includes beatings and gang rape.

   "From the moment of first contact with the population of Sinjar, ISIS
   fighters focused their attack on the Yazidis, because they were
   Yazidis," the report says.

   ''

   ''The investigators describe the militants as seeing themselves as a
   purifying force and that they do not treat any other group in territory
   they control the way they do the Yazidis.

   The U.N. says the Yazidi community that once numbered 400,000 people
   has been entirely displaced, captured or killed.

   The commission recommends the U.N. Security Council refer the situation
   for justice, possibly to the International Criminal Court.It also calls
   on the Syrian government to use military missions to rescue Yazidis
   being held by Islamic State inside of Syria.

   A member of the investigation team said Thursday that they have
   detailed information on "places, violations and names of the
   perpetrators."
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/un-islanmic-state-raped-enslaved-kill
   ed-yazidis-in-genocide-campaign/3378730.html

References

   1. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_32_CRP.2_en.pdf
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/un-islanmic-state-raped-enslaved-killed-yazidis-in-genocide-campaign/3378730.html