06/08/2020

IRAQ: On 6th anniversary of ISIS invasion of Nineveh Plains, Shlomo Organization for Documentation calls on governments and organizations to assist languishing victims

NINEVEH PLAINS, Iraq — On 6 August 2014, ISIS invaded Nineveh displacing hundreds of thousands of Chaldeans–Syriacs–Assyrians. Thousands went missing or were abducted by ISIS, most of their fates not known.

Marking the sixth anniversary of the Islamic State (ISIS) invasion of Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian villages and towns in Nineveh Plains, Iraq, the Shlomo Organization for Documentation issued a statement calling on the International community, the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to step up and assist the victims of ISIS.

Shlomo also urged them to help the families of the abducted and missing Chaldeans–Syriacs–Assyrians, Yezidis, Shabaks, and Shiite Turkmen and to expedite the disclosure of their fate. Consideration, compensation, and support for the victims of ISIS is the responsibility of national, regional, and international governments, said Shlomo.

The statement also called on the Iraqi Government to use all available resources to reduce racism and sectarianism in the country and ensure the equality of all peoples under Iraqi law. This will require the changing of educational curricula in line with international standards of human rights to guarantee cultural, political, and social rights for the country’s many religious and ethnic groups, Shlomo argued.

The statement concluded by calling for the 6th of August to be declared a national day to commemorate the crimes committed against the Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian people in Iraq and emphasizing the need to eliminate the demographic changes set in motion in 2014.