The Yazidis in Northern Iraq have suffered many persecutions, most recently by the Islamic State (Da'esh). An exhibition which opens on 13 January puts the community in the limelight. Da'esh's acts of terror from 2014 onwards have been the most gruesome manifestation of internal violence so far and they targeted in particular the Yazidi religious minority.
The exhibition, "The Yazidis, a people between exile and resistance", is organised by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the NGO ULB-Cooperation. It brings together photographs and texts on the crimes perpetrated by Da'esh.
The exhibition can be seen from January 13 to February 21 at Espace Architecture La Cambre Horta, Place Flagey in Ixelles.
The exhibition is the result of several years of work by two journalists, Johanna Tessières and Christophe Lamfalussy, and includes filmed interviews of ULB professors. Their expertise allows the public to understand the Yazidis. The floor is also given to members of the Yazidi community.
The Yazidi population has been decimated during Da'esh’s terror regime. Thousands of women were abducted and kept in sexual slavery. Men were executed and many children were indoctrinated and converted into child soldiers.
Some 420,000 people fled and found refuge in mainly Iraqi Kurdistan or abroad. In Belgium, there are between 35,000 and 45,000 Yazidis, mainly settled in Liège.
The European Commission writes in a recent document (8 January) on a strategy for support to Iraq that the Iraqi Government has agreed under UN Security Council resolution 2379(2017) to hold Da'esh accountable for its actions in Iraq.
A UN team will be deployed to Iraq to collect, preserve, and store evidence of acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by the terrorist group in Iraq.
The Brussels Times
