ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An advisor for Yazidi affairs to the Kurdistan Region Presidency on Saturday criticized authorities at Syria’s al-Hol Camp for their “lack of collaboration” in facilitating the release of the large number of Yazidis being held in the camp that houses suspected Islamic State (ISIS) family members.
No rescue operations have taken place since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the end of 2024, Khairi Bozani told Rudaw.
“We don’t even know who to negotiate with at this point… But I hope we can find a way to do something,” he said.
ISIS militants abducted more than 6,000 Yazidis, mainly young women and children, when they seized control of Shingal in 2014. About 2,600 are still missing and Bozani said most are believed to be in al-Hol camp.
The camp houses tens of thousands of displaced people, including families of ISIS fighters, and has long been a source of security and humanitarian concerns. The sprawling facility is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but is difficult to secure and has been dubbed a breeding ground for terrorism. Bozani accused the SDF of not cooperating in efforts to locate and release Yazidi captives.
When ISIS swept through the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in northern Iraq, it killed more than 5,000 people in the space of a few weeks, mainly men and older women, and buried them in mass graves. Iraqi authorities are exhuming the graves and identifying the remains.
On Friday, the remains of 32 Yazidi genocide victims were handed over to their families at Mosul’s forensic office, ahead of a funeral ceremony scheduled for Saturday.
Bozani said that the exact number of Yazidi remains still awaiting identification in Baghdad remains unclear due to the lack of sufficient DNA testing facilities.
“DNA tests are one of the biggest obstacles in identifying the victims,” he said.
“There is only one DNA laboratory in Iraq that the government relies on and it is not exclusively dedicated to Yazidi victims but to all atrocities committed in Iraq.”
Speaking about Iraq’s new general amnesty law, Bozani expressed concerns that people who committed atrocities against Yazidis could be released.
“We are suspicious that people involved in the Shingal genocide will be acquitted,” he said. “Even though the Federal Supreme Court has stated that those responsible for the Shingal atrocities will not be pardoned, we have no transparency on how the law is being implemented or which criminals might ultimately walk free.”
The amnesty law provides opportunities for prisoners to request a retrial under certain conditions, but many critics say that loopholes could allow perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to evade justice, further deepening the wounds of Iraq’s genocide survivors.
