'But Isis is gone and now it's Kurdish and who?': Trump reveals ignorance of Yazidi persecution
Last Update: 2019-07-18 00:00:00 - Source: Iraq News
For years, Yazidi genocide survivor Nadia Murad has travelled the world to spread the word about the horrific crimes Isis committed against her people, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts.
But despite Donald Trump frequently claiming credit for defeating the terror group, he appeared unfamiliar with Ms Murad’s work when the two met at the White House on Wednesday.
As Ms Murad finished telling Mr Trump the story of how her family was killed when Isis ran rampage across northern Iraq in 2014, and of her own abduction by the group, the president replied: “And you had the Nobel Prize? That’s incredible. They gave it to you for what reason?”
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Ms Murad then asked Mr Trump to press Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to do more for the survivors of the Isis genocide, and to allow Yazidis to return home.
“But Isis is gone and now it’s Kurdish and who?” he responded.
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate
2/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate
3/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community settle at a camp at Derike, Syria. In the camps here, Iraqi refugees have new heroes: Syrian Kurdish fighters who battled militants to carve an escape route to tens of thousands trapped on a mountaintop
4/15 Iraq crisis
A pilot based at RAF Marham entering a Tornado GR4 prior to taking off for the reconnaissance mission over Iraq. Several RAF Tornado jets set off from RAF Marham in Norfolk this afternoon to travel to a "pre-position", from where they will fly to northern Iraq to provide improved surveillance of the situation on the ground. The jets, fitted with Litening III targeting and surveillance pods, will be able to fly over the crisis area to provide intelligence and help with the delivery of humanitarian aid
5/15 Iraq crisis
A British Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 aircraft equipped with the Litening III pod from RAF Marham, eastern England, on their arrival at RAF Akrotiri Cyprus for their reconnaissance mission over Iraq
6/15 Iraq crisis
Aid inside a Royal Air Force (RAF) Hercules C130 J aircraft before being airdropped to civilians in Iraq
7/15 Iraq crisis
A Royal Air Force (RAF) Hercules C130 J military transport plane at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Britain made a third round of airdrops of supplies to aid refugees stranded on a mountain in northern Iraq, officials said, as Tornado fighters arrived at an RAF base in Cyprus preparing to provide surveillance support for the humanitarian effort
8/15 Iraq crisis
Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 aircraft, flown in from Britain, stand on the tarmac at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus
9/15 Iraq crisis
A displaced man helps a woman, both from the minority Yazidi sect fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, as they make their way towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate
10/15 Iraq crisis
Iraqis including Turkmen, Shabaks, Kurds, Yezidis and Christians, fleeing from assaults of army groups led by Isis, take shelter at Bahirka Camp in Arbil
11/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community look for clothes to wear among items provided by a charity organization at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
12/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather for food at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
13/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather for food at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
14/15 Iraq crisis
Syrian Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take a sick Iraqi Yazidi woman to the clinic at Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
15/15 Iraq crisis
Sick displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community wait for treatment at a clinic at Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
1/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate
2/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate
3/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community settle at a camp at Derike, Syria. In the camps here, Iraqi refugees have new heroes: Syrian Kurdish fighters who battled militants to carve an escape route to tens of thousands trapped on a mountaintop
4/15 Iraq crisis
A pilot based at RAF Marham entering a Tornado GR4 prior to taking off for the reconnaissance mission over Iraq. Several RAF Tornado jets set off from RAF Marham in Norfolk this afternoon to travel to a "pre-position", from where they will fly to northern Iraq to provide improved surveillance of the situation on the ground. The jets, fitted with Litening III targeting and surveillance pods, will be able to fly over the crisis area to provide intelligence and help with the delivery of humanitarian aid
5/15 Iraq crisis
A British Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 aircraft equipped with the Litening III pod from RAF Marham, eastern England, on their arrival at RAF Akrotiri Cyprus for their reconnaissance mission over Iraq
6/15 Iraq crisis
Aid inside a Royal Air Force (RAF) Hercules C130 J aircraft before being airdropped to civilians in Iraq
7/15 Iraq crisis
A Royal Air Force (RAF) Hercules C130 J military transport plane at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Britain made a third round of airdrops of supplies to aid refugees stranded on a mountain in northern Iraq, officials said, as Tornado fighters arrived at an RAF base in Cyprus preparing to provide surveillance support for the humanitarian effort
8/15 Iraq crisis
Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 aircraft, flown in from Britain, stand on the tarmac at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus
9/15 Iraq crisis
A displaced man helps a woman, both from the minority Yazidi sect fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, as they make their way towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate
10/15 Iraq crisis
Iraqis including Turkmen, Shabaks, Kurds, Yezidis and Christians, fleeing from assaults of army groups led by Isis, take shelter at Bahirka Camp in Arbil
11/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community look for clothes to wear among items provided by a charity organization at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
12/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather for food at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
13/15 Iraq crisis
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather for food at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
14/15 Iraq crisis
Syrian Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take a sick Iraqi Yazidi woman to the clinic at Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
15/15 Iraq crisis
Sick displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community wait for treatment at a clinic at Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria
Mr Trump said that he would “look into it very strongly”.
The interaction took place at an Oval Office meeting between the president and a group of survivors of religious persecution, on the sidelines of a State Department conference on religious freedom. Also present was a representative of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority targeted in a state-orchestrated massacre in their home country of Myanmar.
Thousands of Yazidis were killed and more than 6,000 women and children were taken captive by Isis in the summer of 2014, when the terror group carried out a murderous rampage against the small religious minority in their traditional homeland in northern Iraq.
The UN would later declare the attack on Sinjar, and the enslavement of Yazidi women, a genocide. Many Yazidis are still living in displacement camps within Iraq, unable to return to their devastated towns and villages.
Ms Murad was among the women who were taken into slavery by Isis, when she was 19 years old. She escaped after three months, and has spent her time since helping women and children who are victims of abuse and human trafficking. In 2018, she was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize, along with Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”.
“My people cannot go back,” she told the president in an impassioned plea. “After 2014, 95,000 Yazidis emigrated to Germany, not because we want to be refugees, but because we cannot find a safe place to live. I’m still fighting to live in safety.”
“Please do something. It’s not about one family,” she said.
