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Erbil -- On March 26, the Directorate for Survivors Affairs and eight NGOs from across Iraqi Kurdistan and Ninewa Governorate signed an Agreement of Cooperation for the establishment and activation of a formal referral system through which beneficiaries of the Yezidi Survivors Law (YSL) -- individuals who survived the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL, also referred to as Daesh) genocide -- can receive referrals for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services in their areas of residence.

Under the Agreement, Directorate staff will refer survivors to and follow up with these organizations, which have committed to the ethical provision services according to their respective capacities. Located in areas of displacement and return, the eight organizations include: Dialogue Organization for Development and Relief, Farida Global, Free Yezidi Foundation, Hope Makers, Jesuit Rescue Services, Jiyan Foundation, SEED Foundation and Yazda.

"Iraq is showing the world what commitment to transitional justice looks like -- first with the passage of the YSL in March 2021 and establishment of the Directorate for Survivors Affairs; then with the opening of the application process last September for survivors to begin receiving reparations; this month with the first distribution of monthly salaries promised to survivors under the YSL; and now through the activation of the MHPSS Referral System," said Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iraq, Mr. Giorgi Gigauri. "IOM Iraq is proud to have been able to support every step along the way, and we remain committed to a trauma-informed, survivor-centred transitional justice process."

The aim of the Directorate's MHPSS Referral System is to bridge the institutional gap in the MHPSS services available to survivors in Iraq as they undergo rehabilitation in the genocide's aftermath; Indeed, the need for such services and care among genocide survivors is immense, but state facilities and resources for MHPSS provision are almost non-existent, with local and international organizations acting as the main providers of such services for survivors.

"Many survivors who escaped ISIL in 2014 have not seen any MHPSS providers at all," said Khawla, a Yezidi survivor and member of the Survivors Voices Network. "It is very important for survivors to know that there are people who think about them, there are people supporting them to rebuild their lives. And it is crucial that the MHPSS services are sustained because many survivors will need MHPSS support over a long period to be able to overcome their trauma, heal and rebuild their lives."

The Referral System will function as the main framework through which beneficiaries of YSL can access MHPSS services, until the official MHPSS institutional framework is properly equipped and effective. IOM Iraq will help to strengthen the Referral System over the course of 2023 through capacity building, in-kind support and funding. In parallel, the Directorate will initiate work to build a specialized MHPSS facility for YSL beneficiaries in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Director General of the Directorate for Survivors Affairs, Ms. Sarab Elias Barakat, said, "This is an important step in the implementation of the YSL. We are happy with this cooperation with NGOs to provide MHPSS services to the survivors who have been suffering greatly and are in desperate need of this support. This referral mechanism will enable survivors to have access to MHPSS services in their own areas of residence."

"The UK continues to champion the rights of survivors and remains a strong advocate for the implementation of the Yezidi Survivor's Law. We are delighted by the launch of the referral system -- the atrocities committed by Daesh have had a profound impact on minority communities; mental health and psychosocial support remains essential. We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with IOM and the Directorate for Survivor Affairs to further help survivors," said British Ambassador to Iraq, H.E. Mark Bryson-Richardson.

"The Dutch Government is a very proud partner of IOM for their advert support in the making and implementation of the Yezidi Survivors Law. We are very pleased to see this step -- hopefully one in line of many -- to have a direct effect on the lives of those impacted so devastatingly nine years ago. This is really a strong sign that successful steps are being made in the pursuit of transitional justice and a major step towards a more hopeful future for those who were affected," said Mr. Jelle-Jochem Duits, Second Secretary of the Dutch Consulate General.

The YSL represents a key institutional framework for addressing the legacy of ISIL's genocidal crimes against Yezidis, Shabak, Turkmen and Christians, and also stipulates a variety of rights and benefits -- including monthly pension, rehabilitation support and a plot of land -- for women and girls who survived conflict-related sexual violence and children who survived abduction at the hands of ISIL.

For more information, please contact:

IOM Iraq's Public Information Unit, iraqpublicinfo@iom.int

Sarah Gold at IOM Iraq, sgold@iom.int

Originally posted here:
Toward Comprehensive Rehabilitation: Mental Health Service ... - ReliefWeb

The horrors they endured under the Islamic State group may be in the past for the people of Iraq, but the traumatic memories remain.

Now a research project is recording their witness testimonies for posterity.

Omar Mohammed, founder of the Mosul Eye project, rose to prominence during the IS reign by bravely sharing news via Twitter from inside the city under jihadist rule.

Years later, he wants to make sure nothing is forgotten.

"When I was in Mosul recording everything myself, I felt the need to include all the people, to record our history in their own voice," he told AFP.

Bereaved mother Umm Mohammed, 55, is among those who have shared their memories of terror, suffering and loss with the non-governmental group.

The Sunni extremists of IS came for her family one night in 2015 and took away her son Ahmed, then a 27-year-old construction worker.

His brother Mohammed, 10 years younger, then made a fateful choice: he decided to join the ranks of IS, with a daring plan to find and liberate Ahmed.

"I told him: 'My son, don't join them'," recounted Umm Mohammed, her hair under a dark scarf.

"He said: 'It's none of your business. I'm going to get my brother. I'll go into the prisons.'"

The elderly woman told AFP, with sadness in her voice, that Mohammed left "and never came back".

And neither did Ahmed.

Both are presumed to be among the many killed under the group's self-declared "caliphate" that cut across swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Umm Mohammed said she suspects the jihadists felt that Mohammed "was not one of them. They must have thought he was a spy."

- Murder, rape, torture -

Speaking about those dark days years later for the Mosul Eye project has brought up a storm of emotions, but ultimately had a cathartic effect for Umm Mohammed.

"I had a volcano inside me," she said. "When I spoke I felt joy, sadness, despair, relief."

Iraq had already endured years of war and sectarian turmoil that followed the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein 20 years ago when IS launched its campaign of murder, rape, torture and enslavement.

Story continues

Sweeping out from their base in Syria, the Sunni extremists in mid-2014 rampaged across northern Iraq's ancient city of Mosul and Nineveh province.

There were fears they would attack Baghdad before they were pushed back by a US-supported alliance that eventually deprived IS of its Iraqi territory in late 2017.

Gruelling urban battles left much of Mosul in ruins and many of the survivors deeply traumatised.

Mosul Eye, with funding from the US Agency for International Development, has trained 10 students to conduct and film interviews, mostly in Mosul but testimonies have also been collected from people hailing from elsewhere in Iraq.

The youngest of the 70 witnesses are barely 10 years old. Others are in their 80s. The oldest is 104.

The footage will be kept at the group's archives at Mosul University, and George Washington University in the US capital, for use by researchers and for future generations.

"We wanted to show the world how the people of Mosul overcame this experience," said a spokesman for Mosul Eye, Mohannad Ammar.

- 'Opening wounds' -

Another witness is Moslem Hmeid, a 27-year-old law student whose Sunni Arab family endured five months of jihadist rule in Sinjar in 2014 before fleeing.

Seared in his mind especially is the "bloody first week, impossible to erase from memory".

He relived with pain how IS targeted the local Yazidi minority, whose non-Muslim faith the extremists considered heretical.

Hmeid remembered watching helplessly as the jihadists came and loaded Yazidi girls and women into lorries.

"Once I saw two or three trucks full of women," he told AFP. "And a few men, but mostly young women, aged 17 to 30, maybe."

Entire Yazidi villages were emptied and many fell victim to crimes since recognised as genocide by the United Nations and courts in several countries.

Women were forced into sexual slavery and the men were killed, while "those who could fled into the mountains," Hmeid said.

"Witnessing such a catastrophe happen to your neighbours and not being able to help... We were heartbroken," said Hmeid. "Psychologically, we were devastated."

With three of his brothers in the military and on the IS kill list, the family fled to Turkey but later returned to Iraq.

"By talking about these topics, we reopen wounds," said Hmeid. But, added the father of two, "the next generations must know exactly what happened".

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'Witnessing catastrophe': Iraq preserves memories of IS reign - Yahoo News

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Excerpt from:
Thomas Knapp: Time hasn't clarified facts about Iraq War - Daily Reflector

From: UpFront

It wasnt flawed intelligence that led to the war, says Bolton, a key proponent of the US invasion.

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John Bolton was a senior adviser to United States President George W Bush on matters of arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament in the lead-up to the US invasion of Iraq, 20 years ago.

Bolton, one of the strongest proponents for the war, repeatedly made the case that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a threat not just to the United States but also to the wider world, pushing and amplifying claims about weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaeda.

But were these claims just pretexts used to forward the longtime objective of some in the Bush administration to overthrow Saddam? And how much dissenting evidence was ignored in the run-up to the war?

On UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to the Bush-era undersecretary of state for arms control and international affairs and later US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.

Read less

Published On 24 Mar 202324 Mar 2023

Read more here:
Twenty years on, John Bolton is still defending the USs Iraq War - Al Jazeera English

A recent incident has revealed the extent of the attempts to make the PKK terrorist organization grow beyond Turkish borders.

On March 15, a helicopter crashed in Iraqs Duhok region. Shortly after the incident, the counterterrorism force of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq announced that the helicopter carrying nine was a single chopper, a Eurocopter AS350 model designed and manufactured in France.

So far, everything seemed like a typical aircraft crash, until it was revealed that some of the victims who died in the accident were "high-ranking" PKK terrorists.

According to the statement by the PKK regarding the incident, one of the pilots was Sherfan Kobani, a cousin of the PKK's Syrian wing YPGs top commander Ferhat Abdi ahin (code-named Mazloum Kobani). Apparently, the terrorists trained and supported by the United States in Syria had somehow captured the helicopter and learned to fly it. Furthermore, the PKK/YPG stated that not one but two helicopters carrying PKK members had crashed in the region.

Of course, after this grave incident, eyes turned to the U.S., which is the protector of the PKK/YPG. Two questions were crucial: Who did these helicopters belong to? Who put them at the service of a terrorist organization?

On a question, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder insisted that the U.S. did not give pilot training to the PKK/YPG. "As far as I know, we do not provide helicopter piloting training."

It is useful to highlight the "as far as I know" part here.

France, the manufacturer of the helicopter, applied a similar "lay to the dead" tactic. Anadolu Agency (AA) recently asked the French Foreign Ministry, who owned the AS350 model helicopter manufactured by French Airbus Helicopters: "The serial number of the helicopter appears in the images reflected in the press. So, do the French need to know to whom this helicopter was sold to?

As a response, the spokesperson of the French ministry said: "We have no comment.

Of course, after these evasive statements, eyes were once again turned to the KRG. The KRG's anti-terrorism unit has issued another statement regarding the helicopter on its official Facebook page. The statement noted that these helicopters were flying between the northern part of Syria and the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah and that the official institutions in the KRG were not informed about this issue.

There are plenty of allegations floating around. Some argue that the helicopter was given by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) political party, while others claim that the second downed helicopter was kept a secret. However, there is the gospel truth and journalists working abroad do not give up on the issue. The evasive answers given by the U.S. officials at news conferences, in particular, once again reveal the seriousness of the situation.

Finally, the following dialogue between a TRT World reporter and a Pentagon spokesperson shows how stuck Washington actually is in supporting the PKK.

"I have a hard time understanding. Didn't you know about helicopters that take off from the ground, which is a U.S. base with 1,000 soldiers? reporter Yunus Paksoy asked, to which Ryder said "We weren't involved, adding that further questions about the incident should be directed to the PKK/YPG.

Upon that answer, Paksoy asked whether the U.S. had any information on the issue.

"We weren't involved. I choose my words specifically, Ryder replied.

After this scandal, which broke out just a few days after the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) officials visited the PKK/YPG, the statements of the U.S. remain "desperate," so to speak.

Let the parties try to cover up this issue as much as they want, or let the questions suffocate. I am confident that Turkish intelligence will shed light on this dark incident down to every detail with its evidence.

See the original post:
US fails to account for downed PKK helicopter in Iraq | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah