News Center- The Yazidi Free Women's Movement (Kurdish: Tevgera Azadiya Jinên Êzîdî-TAJÊ) held a ceremony at a mass grave located in the village of Qiney, south of Shengal (Sinjar) Mountains, on Friday to commemorate those killed in the genocide committed by ISIS against the Yazidi community on August 3,2014.

There are hundreds of mass graves in Shengal, said Riham Hasan, Co-chair of the Shengal Autonomous Administration Executive Council. “Shengal bore witness to the atrocities of the genocide. The Yazidis will continue to struggle and will not allow this genocide to be forgotten.”

‘We will hold accountable those responsible’

Riham Hasan pointed to the resistance of the Yazidi people and said, “We will hold accountable those responsible for the genocide against our people. Today, we are more optimistic, more faithful, and more powerful. We will consolidate our autonomy and live freely in Shengal. Our response to our enemy will be to live freely in our homeland.”

Riham Hasan criticized the Iraqi government for not recognizing the attacks on ISIS against the Yazidi community as a genocide although many countries have already recognized the attacks as a genocide. “We will not allow the Iraqi state and the United Nations to ignore us. The Iraqi government still refuses to recognize the genocide by overlooking the mass graves. Although 14 countries have already recognized the genocide, the country we live in still refuses to do so. The Iraqi government may not recognize the genocide but Shengal Mountains is a living witness to it.”