03 April 2016•Update: 08 April 2016
By Khidr Khalat
NINEVEH, Iraq
An Iraqi official who belongs to the Yazidi sect voiced surprise on Sunday that Iraq’s parliament had not designated the city of Sinjar in the northern Nineveh province a "disaster area" as it has the war-battered Anbar province.
Khairi Bozani, head of Yazidi affairs in northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government, accused Iraq’s parliament of having "double standards".
"Parliament has forgotten the heinous crimes committed by the [terrorist] Daesh organization in Sinjar and the Nineveh Plains," he said.
"While we reaffirm our solidarity with the people of Anbar province, we strongly condemn Daesh’s crimes in this city [Sinjar], drawing the assembly’s attention to the fact that what has taken place in Sinjar has been fiercer and more lethal… than what has occurred in other areas," Bozani added.
"Wasn’t the entire city [Sinjar] destroyed? hasn’t Daesh trafficked Yazidi women and killed thousands of the city’s residents?" he asked.
Bozani urged MPs to submit a formal request to the parliamentary leadership to designate Sinjar and the Nineveh Plains as "disaster areas".
Daesh captured the predominantly-Yazidi Sinjar area in mid-2014, killing numerous local residents and taking thousands of local women and children captive, according to local sources and international organizations.
On Saturday, Iraq’s parliament approved a proposal to designate Anbar province a "disaster area".
