ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The United Nations investigative team finished its first exhumation of a Yezidi mass grave in the Shingal region on Thursday. After five days of work at the site in Kocho village, they collected the remains of up to 30 individuals.
The “victims’ remains and associated evidence have safely arrived at the Medico-Legal Directorate in Baghdad,” the investigative team (UNITAD) announced in a press statement.
ISIS militants began their genocidal campaign against Yezidis in the small village of Kocho on August 15, 2014, 25 kilometres southeast of Shingal city.
Some four hundred men and 77 older women were killed and their bodies thrown into mass graves around the village. At least 850 women and children were abducted by the group, including Nadia Murad who escaped captivity and has bravely told her story, appealing for global support for her community.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year and attended the opening ceremony of the exhumation in her home village on March 15, four and a half years after her mother and brothers were among those killed by ISIS.
Many survivors attended the exhumation and UNITAD had a psycho-social support team on hand to help them with their grief.
Experts will conduct forensic analysis of the evidence collected in Kocho with an eye to building a criminal case. They also hope to be able to identify the remains so that they can be returned to family members for burial.
Karim A. A. Khan, the British lawyer heading up UNITAD, promised victims and survivors that they will continue their investigation “so that the demands of justice and the requirement of accountability in fair trials can be achieved.”
“At all times, UNITAD will ensure that the views and concerns of the survivors and families of victims, will be at the centre of our work so that they, the people of Iraq and the international community, may realise accountability for the heinous crimes they have endured, which may amount to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity,” he added.
UNITAD expects to return to Shingal to continue its investigations before Ramadan, which begins in early May.