The Iraqi government decided to pay a financial reward to anyone who provides “accurate and correct information” about the abducted Ezidis.
The initiative was announced by the General Directorate of Survivors Affairs - affiliated with the Iraqi government - at a time when the fate of two thousand Ezidis went missing under the ruling of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS remains unknown.
Shihab Ahmed, director of the Shingal (Sinjar) branch of the Department of Survivors’ Affairs, told KirkukNow, “As a new effort and initiative to find the kidnapped people, the Department of Survivors’ Affairs announced that it will offer a financial reward to anyone who provides accurate and correct information about the whereabouts of the kidnapped people, on the condition that the information leads to their rescue.”
"We cannot determine the amount of the reward, but it is a huge reward. A special committee is responsible for disbursing the reward and collecting information, which determines the amount, because the amount of the reward depends on the number of kidnappers who will be rescued based on that information."
In August 2014, the extremist militants of ISIS took control of Shingal district, home for the non-Muslim Ezidi community and large swathes of Iraq and kidnapped 6,417 Ezidis, 3,500 of whom have so far been freed, and the fate of over 2,000 others remains unknown, according to statistics from the Erbil-based Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
The decision to allocate a financial reward to those who provide information about the kidnappers has been in effect since July 7
The director Department of Survivors’ Affairs in Shingal stressed that their initiative aims to rescue more abductees, "This is a good attempt to find the abductees, and at the same time another paragraph of the Yazidi Women Survivors Law will enter into force."
The Ezidi Women Survivors Law, which was approved by the Iraqi Parliament on March 1, 2021, includes granting survivors material and moral compensation with the aim of providing them with a decent life and reintegrating them into society.
One of the provisions of the law obliges the Survivors Affairs Department to work on research and follow-up to find out the fate of the abductees.
For this purpose, a committee headed by Zaidan Khalaf Shangali, advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister and responsible for the Shingal file, began its duties, and its membership includes the director of the Shingal branch of the Department of Survivors’ Affairs.
“The decision to allocate a financial reward to those who provide information about the kidnappers has entered into force since July 7 of this month and they can communicate with the committee by phone or correspondence,” Ahmed said.
The Ezidi Women Survivors Law entitles groups covered by the provisions of this law a residential plot of land or a housing unit for free, in addition to opening centers for providing psychological support to female survivors and educational opportunities for survivors who were forced to drop school due to the war against IS.
According to the law, a monthly salary of twice the lowest pension f will be paid for surviving women and girls - the lowest pension in Iraq is 500,000 Iraqi dinars IQD - meaning that each survivor will receive a monthly salary of one million Iraqi Dinars IQD (USD650).
The law includes not only Ezidis but all survivors of Turkmens, Christians, and Shabak communities, who were enslaved by IS – Daesh - and rescued from captivity or survived the mass killing campaigns. It also includes all children under the age of eighteen of both sexes.
Khairy Bouzani, the supervisor of the Ezidi abductees’ file in the KRG’s Abductees’ Rescue Office, told KirkukNow, “The Directorate of Survivors’ Affairs affiliated with the Iraqi government does not deal with us at all. It does not give us the information and data it has. Each party works separately.”
“We have our own plan to rescue the kidnapped people, and we will continue to work until all the kidnapped people are rescued.”
