No practical steps have been taken on the land where new Kocho village was supposed to be rebuilt by the end of last year.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, announced an initiative in April 2021 to build a new village only four kelometers far from old Kocho to preserve the legacy of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attorcities.
The initiative of Nadia Murad, Ezidi (Yazidi) human rights activist and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, a survivor and leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence, came within the framework of service projects for the Ezidi community, with the assistance of the Iraqi government and on the budget of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), stressed Salah Hassan, representative of Nadia Initiative NI , for rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating for survivors of sexual violence.
Daud Salim Bashar, a victim of ISIS and a native of Kocho, is still living in displacement and waiting for his house to be built in New Kocho.
His parents fell into the hands of the extremist fighters of IS, who killed his father yet his mother was later rescued.
"My house in Kocho village has been destroyed. I am waiting for the foundation stone of the new Kocho to be laid.”
My house in Kocho village is destroyed. I am waiting for the foundation stone of the new Kocho to be laid
According to Marwan Jad’an, the headman of Kocho village, there were 196 houses in Kocho ahead of IS attack, but most of them have been destroyed. Almost 225 families used to live in Kocho village, but 80 families have left Iraq.
On August 3, 2014, Daesh (IS) attacked Shingal (Sinjar) district, home for the non-Muslim Ezidi community and on August 15, it carried out a “massacre” in the village of Kocho. Even the majority of the mass graves at the hands of IS are for Kocho civilians. This prompted Nadia Murad to take the initiative to build a new village to preserve the legacy of the IS attack in Kocho.
The new village is to be rebuilt on 65 acres of land.
"I have submitted all the documents and information related to the demolition of my house to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). They say the construction of Kocho village will start soon," Salim said.
"We cannot return, nor can lead an ordinary life in displacement. They should have taken that into account and started building the village earlier.”
The new village, which was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023, is four km from the old village. The first phase will include 150 houses, a school, a hospital and a number of parks, according to the design.
“It is true that the land issue has been delayed for a while Let's do the project,” NI’s representative told KirkukNow.
Ali Gabo, the deputy governor of Nineveh for the affairs of the displaced and organizations, told KirkukNow: “We have been in contact since the first day of the announcement of the project. We are waiting for state properties to address the Nineveh Municipality, in order to use the land for housing units."
“I expect everything to be over in the next couple of weeks,” Gabo said.
Shingal, located 120 west of Mosul, on the border of Iraq-Syria, is home to the Ezidi minority targeted by ISIL in August 2014 and one of the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil.
Seized in August 2014 by IS militants whom accused the Ezidis of being “heretics,” Shingal has been the scene of tragedy: a genocidal campaign of killings, rape, abductions and enslavement, amounted to genocide lately acknowledged by the United Nations and parliaments of Belgium and Netherlands.
Thousands of Ezidi women, girls and kids were enslaved and taken as sex slaves. The Kurdistan Regional Government KRG office for rescue of abducted Ezidis says 6,417 Ezidis were enslaved by IS when it took over Shingal in 2014 and 2,700 of them are missing up today.
