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Yazidi Massacre fuels northern Iraq tensions
25.4.2007 |
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April
25, 2007
Mosul, (Northern Iraq) -- Sectarian tensions
are high in the Mosul area of northern Iraq
following the killing
of 23 members of the Kurdish Yazidi minority.
The Mosul area has long been religiously mixed. It
is home to a variety of Muslim and Christian
communities, as well as to the Yazidis - a small,
ancient heterodox sect who are ethnic Kurds.
Yazidis are to be found in Iran, Russia and Turkey,
but the largest number are in northern Iraq.
Traditionally the different communities in and
around Mosul have lived together in relative
harmony.
But now there is a new tension in the area, focused
on the village of Bashika, which is mainly Yazidi
with Christian and Muslim minorities.
Cycle of killings
The trouble started when a Yazidi woman from the
village recently converted to Islam and ran off with
a Sunni Muslim man.
This was not the first incident of its kind, and the
woman's relatives were so incensed that they
kidnapped her, brought her back to the village and
stoned her to death.
Sunnis, and the local police, demanded the villagers
hand over the culprits to face justice, but the
villagers refused.
On 22 April, gunmen - presumed to be Sunnis -
stopped a bus bringing textile workers from Mosul
back to the village.
They separated 23 Yazidis from the others and shot
them dead.
According to an eyewitness, the gunmen shouted at
the Yazidis, "God curse your devil".
Some Muslims regard Yazidis as devil-worshippers
because they revere an angel in the form of a blue
peacock.
It appears the dispute is local - there is no
evidence militant Sunnis from outside the area were
involved.
Minorities in peril
But the incident has worrying implications.
It is one more sign that Iraq is not just in the
grip of a cycle of violence involving Sunni and Shia
Muslims.
It faces a broader sectarian problem now affecting
some of the country's oldest minorities.
Following attacks on Iraqi Christians, many have
fled the country.
Christian doctors, academics and other professionals
have been targeted either out of sectarian hostility
or by criminal gangs carrying out kidnappings for
ransom.
Those who remain live in fear, especially after the
killing of two elderly nuns last month in the
northern city of Kirkuk.
The Yazidis, in contrast, have largely stayed put.
Once a mosaic of religious and ethnic groups who
enjoyed a largely peaceful coexistence, Iraq is
increasingly falling prey to sectarian suspicion and
intolerance.
bbc
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