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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Kurdish curbs harm recovery of Yazidis

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ARBIL, Iraq: Kurdish restrictions on the movement of goods are harming the recovery of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, which was targeted for genocide by the IS group, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. It said restrictions imposed by the autonomous Kurdish government “disproportionate to any possible security considerations are causing unnecessary harm to people’s access to food, water, livelihoods, and other fundamental rights.” It said the restrictions affected the Sinjar area, the main hub of the Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking religious minority whose unique faith is despised by militants. The area is theoretically under the authority of the central government in Baghdad but it is largely controlled by the forces of the autonomous Kurdish region.


“The KRG should be working to facilitate access to Sinjar for the hundreds of Yazidi civilians wishing to return to their homes, not adding more barriers to their recovery,” HRW said. It said it had not been able to find a single farmer who had been granted a permit to take his produce to the Kurdish region. HRW said the Kurdish authorities argued they were concerned about the activities of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The separatist group, which is also present in neighbouring Turkey, has long had bases in northern Iraq but stepped up its presence there after IS swept through the region in 2014. It is outlawed by Ankara. — AFP


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