Since 2014 when territory began to be retaken from the
Islamic State in northern Iraq stories began to emerge of Arab towns being
destroyed and forced displacement at the hands of the Kurdish Peshmerga and
Yazidi militias. Amnesty International recently released a report detailing its
findings for several villages in Ninewa, Kirkuk and Diyala provinces based upon
field research, interviews, and analysis of satellite photography entitled “Banished And
Dispossessed, Forced Displacement and Deliberate Destruction In Northern Iraq.”
It found evidence of intentional destruction of homes and buildings by the
Peshmerga, the Syrian People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK), and Yazidi militias.
Sinjar district in western Ninewa was the site of bloody
massacres of Yazidis by the Islamic State, which led to revenge attacks when
the area was retaken. In August 2014 the Islamic State took Sinjar, and by the
end of the year most of the district had been recaptured by a combination of
Peshmerga, PKK, YPG, and Yazidi militias. Amnesty looked at twelve villages in
the area, ten of which were completely wiped out and the other two left with
extensive damage. There were no signs of air strikes or heavy fighting to
recapture them to explain the destruction done. Four villages looked like they
were bulldozed, which was supported by interviews with residents who said that
Peshmerga and Yazidi militias flattened the villages. Eight others showed signs
of burning buildings, which local residents talked about as well.
Two specific areas Amnesty studied were Barzanke and Zummar in
Ninewa that were freed in August and October 2014 respectively. The Islamic State
destroyed 13 houses in Barzanke before being forced out. The Peshmerga and PKK
then occupied it for two weeks during which they looted and destroyed
buildings. In October 2014 three Peshmerga told Amnesty that homes had been
blown up in Barzanke because it supported IS. At another time two Kurdish
fighters said that the town had been destroyed so that the residents couldn’t
come back. Later, Yazidis attacked the nearby villages of Sibaya, Sayir and
Khazuke killing 21 civilians, arresting 40 others, 17 of which were thought to
be killed, and burned most of the buildings. Months later the towns were
bulldozed. In Jiri, Sibaya, and Sayir more than 75% of the structures were
destroyed and in Um Khabari it was more than 50%. Residents claimed this went
on while the Peshmerga in the area looked on. In Zummar the residents were not
allowed to return. The Kurds said that the area was booby trapped, but locals
told Amnesty that their houses were being destroyed so that they couldn’t go
back. A fieldtrip to the town in April 2015 found most of the Arab sections of
Zummar were destroyed and looted. A Kurdish resident told researchers that most
of the damage had been done by the Peshmerga and Kurdish locals not IS.
The events in Diyala’s Jalawla were slightly different. IS
attacked the area in June and captured most of it. The residents were displaced
as a result, but after the district was freed they were not allowed to return.
There was also extensive damage done to the infrastructure during the fighting,
and then looting afterward. The Peshmerga and Hashd both cleared Jalawla, and
then blamed each other for the destruction of buildings and stealing afterward.
In fact, the looting continued up to at least December 2015 with reports of
trucks driving in through Peshmerga checkpoints and leaving with various pieces
of property. Like in Ninewa, the Peshmerga were also accused of desroying
villages such as Jumeili. The town was freed in November 2014. The Kurds set up
in a few buildings, and then the rest of it was completely flattened using what
appeared to be bulldozers. Satellite photos showed that 94% of the main part of
the village was wiped out. Amnesty teams went to nearby Tabaj Hamid and Bahiza
and found them knocked down, and in the latter’s case burned as well. One
resident of Tabaj Hamid said that the town was intact when the Peshmerga
arrived, the residents were then forced out, and then it was bulldozed.
Kirkuk was the third province Amnesty covered. There 40
villages had been attacked and the residents permanently displaced. Researchers
visited Maktab Khaled in November 2015 and found it razed with no buildings
left standing. A Peshmerga fighter said that it had been bulldozed to make it a
safe zone to separate the Peshmerga and Islamic State lines.
Amnesty was only the latest to note these events taking
place in northern Iraq. In November
2014 Amnesty’s Donatella Rovera visited Barzanke and found all the houses
there destroyed. Some of that was from U.S. airstrikes, but Kurdish fighters
did most of the damage claiming the town’s people were IS sympathizers. The
next month Niqash
reported on Jalawla after it had been freed and heard that the Kurds were
bulldozing homes there. That same month PRI
went to Kharabaroot in Kirkuk, which was destroyed. A Peshmerga commander
claimed that the Islamic State did the damage, but residents blamed the Kurds.
That was dismissed by the commander who called the locals IS supporters. In
February 2015, Human Rights Watch released an extensive report
on Arab towns destroyed by the Peshmerga and Kurdish civilians in Makhmour and
Zummar. In September Iraq
Oil Report and The
National both travelled to Daquq in southern Kirkuk governorate where they
found looting and destruction of Arab villages. One Peshmerga commander told
Iraq Oil Report about four villages that were bulldozed. The National went to
Wahda where residents accused the Peshmerga of wiping it out. Other villages in
the area showed signs of being burned and knocked down too. Finally, the latest
human rights report
by the United Nations said that on August 16, 2015 the Peshmerga were
destroying homes and business of Arabs in Jalawla. It also had evidence of
destruction of property in Tajneed, Wahda, and Shuhada in Diyala.
What all of these reports together revealed were that
different motivations were at work across the three provinces of Ninewa, Diyala
and Kirkuk. In Ninewa, many of the attacks seemed to be motivated by revenge
for the slaughter of Yazidis by the Islamic State. Many locals were accused of
being IS sympathizers, and the Yazidis and their YPG and PKK allies wanted
retribution so they attacked Arabs and destroyed their homes. In Kirkuk the
situation was completely different. There the destruction of buildings appeared
to be part of a military policy to clear out towns in no man’s land so that the
Ilsamic State did not use them. Finally, in Diyala, the main motivation
appeared to be political. The Kurds have claimed Jalwala as part of the
disputed territories and argued with Baghdad over it for years. By knocking
down Arab property they could prevent the people from coming back, and thus
ensure that it was a Kurdish area. Overall, these events are just another sign
of how Iraq is being torn apart by the war with the Islamic State. The
extremists played about those divisions to seize territory in the summer of
2014. Now the Shiites and Kurds are exacting their revenge upon not only the
insurgents, but the communities that they blame for supporting them. These
scars are likely to last at least a decade showing the long lasting effect the
war will leave on Iraq.
SOURCES
Ali, Dashty, “A New Northern Frontline Where Iraq’s Kurds
And Shiites Are Facing Off,” Niqash, 12/18/14
Amnesty International “Iraq: Banished and Dispossessed:
Displacement and Deliberate Destruction In Northern Iraq,” 1/20/16
George, Susannah, “The Kurdish Peshmerga helping the US take
back territory from ISIS may be kicking out Arabs,” PRI’s The World, 12/23/14
Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights UNAMI United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq - Human
Rights Office, "Report on the Protection of Civilians in the Armed
Conflict in Iraq: 1 May - 31 October 2015," January 2016
Human Rights Watch, “Iraqi Kurdistan: Arabs Displaced,
Cordoned Off, Detained,” 2/25/15
Iraq Oil Report, “After Peshmerga victory, homes looted and
destroyed,” 9/1/15
Rovera, Donatella, “Stoking the fire of Iraq’s sectarian
conflict,” Annahar, 11/1/14
Williams, Elizabeth, “Kurds’ smouldering feud could reignite
in northern Iraq,” The National, 9/10/15
