UNITED NATIONS, May 10 2021 The head of the United Nations investigation team collecting evidence of Islamic State crimes in Iraq, Karim Khan, told the Security Council on the 10th that there is “clear and convincing evidence” that the persecution of Yazidis by the Islamic State in Iraq constitutes genocide.
Karim Khan said the team also identified the specific perpetrators of the genocide against the Yazidis. He noted that the ultimatum issued by the Islamic State to many Yazidi villages fully demonstrated its intention to attempt genocide against the Yazidis.
The Yazidis are an Iraqi minority, mostly concentrated in the towns of Sinjar and Baishika in Nineveh province. After the Islamic State captured the town of Sinjar in August 2014, it carried out massacres, slavery and other persecutions of Yazidis.
Karim Khan said the U.N. investigation team also completed the Investigation and Evidence Of The June 2014 Massacre Of UnarMed CadetS And Other Personnel At The Tikrit Air Force Academy By The Islamic State. The massacre targeted Shia Muslims and those who did not believe in Islam. Propaganda videos of the massacre, produced by the Islamic State in July 2015, clearly show that the terrorist group directly and publicly incited genocide.
