Yazidis are being held like hostages by KDP in order to use their "votes"

Reports 03:12 PM - 2023-04-15

Yazidis and voting.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is holding Yazidis displaced from Sinjar, the heart of Yazidi land in Iraq, in 17 camps in Duhok in order to use them as a political pressure card against Iraq while also guaranteeing itself their votes for the Kurdistan parliamentary and Iraqi provincial elections.

Yazidi Kurds became displaced from Nineveh and Sinjar due to Islamic State (ISIS) attacks. More than 300,000 Yazidi Kurds live in the Kurdistan Region; according to the latest statistics, 220,000 Yazidi displaced people remain in 17 camps in Duhok, and the KDP has detained them for its own purposes and does not allow them to return.

The KDP sets conditions on Iraq for the return of displaced 

Political analyst Ghayath Surchi told PUKMEDIA: "Although the KDP has made the expulsion of parties, which it equates to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), from the Kurdistan Region a condition for the Iraqi government in exchange for allowing the internally displaced to return home, even if Iraq fulfills this condition, the KDP still will not give up the displaced because it uses their votes in the elections for its own interests."

"The demand for the expulsion of the forces that the KDP equates to the PKK is a foreign party's demand." "It is clear to everyone that the KDP is not ready to let the displaced return to their homeland because it benefits from their presence to collect foreign aid," Surchi added.

"The main objective of the KDP is to use the displaced for the elections, in addition to using them as a pressure card and justification on the Iraqi government," he continued. "Meanwhile, any aid that the Iraqi government, the UN, or other international organizations send to the displaced is seized by the KDP and distributed through the Barzani Foundation."

The return of the displaced is political and electoral bankruptcy for the KDP 

The non-return of the displaced is in the KDP's interest in several ways, and it uses them for its party agenda to increase its electoral votes.

Dawud Jundi, Deputy Head of the Mosul Headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told PUKMEDIA: "The KDP is blocking the displaced from returning to their homes since doing so would result in political and electoral bankruptcy for the KDP." "The displaced are being held by the KDP so that it can utilize them for political purposes. In the most recent elections, it is evident that the KDP has monopolized the votes of the displaced." 

Since international organizations, the Iraqi government, and the US provide financial aid to the displaced, preventing them from returning to their homes has several economic advantages for the KDP, according to Jundi.

The deputy head of the Mosul headquarters stated that the KDP had set conditions for allowing the displaced to return as it wants the Iraqi government to evict the parties (which the KDP identifies as related to the PKK) from the Kurdistan Region.

He added, "Naturally, this is done to further the objectives of a foreign party, and the KDP will in no way permit the displaced to return."

Iraqi Minister of Migration: "We have no authority over the displaced camps in the Kurdistan Region"

"The camps are managed by the Barzani Organization, so we have no authority over them," said Ivan Jabro, Iraq's Minister of Migration and Displacement.

We call on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to open the door so that the displaced can return to their areas of origin, and we call on Masoud Barzani, the President of the KDP, to try and stop the violations against the displaced in the camps in Erbil and Duhok."

"We support the voluntary return of the displaced, but there is no genuine will to resolve the displaced issue in the Kurdistan Region," she stated.

There are 26 displaced persons camps in the Kurdistan Region that have yet to be closed.  Despite this, the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement stated in late 2021 that "all displaced camps have been closed, except those in the Kurdistan Region." 


 
PUKMEDIA