Canadian Yezidis

Their Excellencies, The Honorable Mr. George W. Bush,President of the United States, The Honorable Mr. Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canad, The Honorable Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, The Honorable Mr. Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International-Canada, The Honorable Miss. Kathryn White, Executive Director of United Nations Association in Canada

Your Excellencies,

Our community of Canadian Yezidis is very sensitive to any human rightsviolations perpetrated against those who are struggling to be heard by andto participate in the governments of their respective nations. As Yezidis, we are particularly concerned with the violation ofthese rights among theYezidi people of Iraq, many of whom are currently feeling the need to flee to Europe just to protect themselves and their families from inhuman treatment. We would like to bring to your attention some of the more vicious human rights violations andattacks perpetrated against the Yezidisof Iraq since the removal of the previous regime of Saddam Hussein by US and Great Britain forces in March of 2003:

1. Along withother religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq the Yezidis have continuouslybeenmisclassified as either Arabs or Kurds, and their voting rights have thereby been violated.The registration and ballot irregularities that have ensued have served to erase the Yezidis’ distinctness as a people and not given them their rightful voice in political decisions.

2. On Thursday, May 29, 2008, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police recruiting center, killing 24 mostly were Yezidis and wounding 23 others. Among the 24 dead, most were innocent civilianstrying to registerto receivepublic assistance and/orto serve in thepolice and military forces. About one week prior to this attack, the Iraqi prime minister, Hon. Nouri al-Maliki, said in a radio address in Nineveh province that the Yezidis and Chaldo-Assyrians should join the police and military forces for better security and protection.We believedat the time that if the Yezidis and the other 4-5 ethnic groups in the region could administer securityin the Nineveh Plain it would be better for everyone.Butthe Kurdish Authority resisted any change in the administration and safety of the Nineveh Plain. And it continues to govern this region illegally and by force.

3. The Yezidissettled and living in the northern IraqiYezidi territory, as well asthose in the Chaldo-Assyrian, Shabak and Turkman regions, have been ignored by both the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad s Federal Government for any public assistance. This has been especially noticeable inthe Sinjar region of Iraq, where Yezidis make upmore than 85% of the population. In this regionpublic assistance programs are either non-existent or extremely deficient in regards to theadministration and dispensation ofclean drinking water, hospitals and healthcare, public schools, food products and food stamps, employment, and perhaps most importantly, the security of the region.

4. On August 14, 2007, the most deadliest of all the recent terrorists attacks against the Yezidis occurred in theYezidi villages of Kahataniya and Al-Jazeera in the district of Sinjar, located in northwestIraq. Four hundred Yezidis weremassacred in the attack, 300 were wounded, and another 70went missing.Afterthe explosions in these two Yezidis villages, one of theterrorists was captured by the Iraqi military and the Kurdish governmenttook him first to Dohuk province and thento Sinjar. About one month ago, Brigadier General of Sinjar military camp Mr. Hassan Artoshi and Mr. Serbast Tranishi, the chief leader of the KDPs headquarter in Sinjar of the Kurdish secret services, called upon the innocent Yezidis who were wounded andthe families of the slain victims of the attack to come tocourt and cancel their criminal case against the terrorists. This is an abomination against human rights andirrefutable proof that the Kurdish Regional Government has beena partner in the crimes against the Yezidis.In view of these circumstancesit should bethe responsibility of the UN and the International Community to bring these criminals to an international court of justice. Let it be known: these were not natural disasters. Theywere attempts at mass exterminationof the Yezidis orchestrated by the KRG and its partners.

5. Another of KRGs crimes against humanity is the case of Dr. Kamal Sayid Qadir, who was attacked by Masrour Barzani, the son of Massoud Barzani,(president of Kurdish Regional Government) and his body guards in Vienna, Austria.To learn more about this outrageous attack onDr. Kamal Sayid Qadir,please visit this link: http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc022608KA1.html

6. On February 15, 2007, during the Yezidis Easter celebration, the Kurds and their militias attacked the Yezidis of the Ayn Sifini, district of Shaykhan.They burned two Yezidis Cultural Centers and a temple there. They alsoburned two resident homes; they set three cars on fire; and they destroyed and looted some variety stores and a liquor store.

7.In the Nineveh Plain region more than two million Yezidis, Chaldo-Assyrians, Turkmens and Shabakshave categorically refused to be re-made into Kurds.But the Kurds are amalgamating all the inhabitants of the huge Nineveh Plain by forceand calling them “Kurds” of Kurdistan.During the Iraqi elections of 2005the Kurdish government prevented ballot boxes from reaching this region, so its diverse inhabitants were not allowed a vote. What the Kurds have been doing in this region is agreat crime against humanity. KDP and PUK offices have been built in even the smallest villages. Clerics and clan leaders are been bribed, andinnocent civilians are being killed, tortured, imprisoned and raped.

8. since 2005 and continuing even today,officials of the Yezidi Political Movement for Reform and Progress have been oppressed while receiving threatsin an extremely aggressive way from the KRG. The USA , Great Britain and their allies removed the oppressive, dictatorial regime of Saddam in order to free all Iraqis.But now, under the power of the Kurdistan Regional Government and their militias,the crimes against humanity and human rights violations in northern Iraq are more prevalentthan they were during the previous regime.

Thus, the situation of the Iraqi Yezidis is dire. Violations are constantly taking place, and if nothing is donethe Yezidisof Iraq will continue to suffer and struggle mercilessly. Eventually,the Yezidis willbe forcefully integratedinto the Kurdish majority.Those who resist in this conversion to become “Kurds” will continue to be victims ofoppression and racial discrimination within their own country.

We areYezidis and want to be recognized as what we are (Yezidis)

As United States President, the Canadian Prime Minister, the United Nations Secretary,the Secretary of Amnesty International-Canada, the Executive Director of the United Nations Association in

Canada,the international Yezidi community urgently appeals to you for support in helping our families in Iraq receive their basic human rights so our culture can continue to survive in our ancient homeland.

To insure Yezidi survival werequest your immediate assistance in the following:

• Close monitoring of the new Iraqi constitution and the upcoming provincial elections, which will possibly be held in October, 2008. Please helpensure that the Yezidis are represented in the newdemocratic government of Iraq.
• An immediate pullout of all Kurdish Political Offices and their militias from the Nineveh Plain, and the Yezidi areas of Sinjar and Shaykhan in particular.The Kurds are notobeying democratic and international laws and must be expelled.
• The Yezidis must be identified as Yezidis in both ethnicity and religion, not as Kurds or Arabs. And their rights must be protected in the Iraqi constitution and by International law.
• An immediate United Nations team to investigate the two Yezidis villages that were attacked by terrorists on Aug. 14, 2007 and killed hundreds of innocent Yezidis.Documented evidence exists that reveals that the local Kurdish authority was a partner in these crimes against humanity. The U.N. and the International Community must be able to investigate this incident. They need totake all possible measures and remove the Kurdish authority from the Yezidi regions. Only then can the Yezidislive in peace and freedom.
• The Nineveh Plain, including Sinjar and Shaykhan in particular (the Yezidis regions), should become a separate autonomous state within Iraq.This will be a key element in bringing stability and democracy to Iraq. It will allow Iraqs most ancient and vulnerable people to be a meaningful and participatory component of a new democratic Iraq. Moreover, it will be the only way that the attacks will end against the innocent ethnic groups that include the Yezidis, Chaldo-Assyrians, Armenians and others.

Most Respectfully,

Mirza Ismail Dawood Dawood Kheder Dakko Hadji Khalil

Officials of the London Yezidis Community