The graphic novel Shingal shows that the Yazidis were not passive victims of the Islamic State’s attacks in August 2014. The Yazidis were abandoned by the army that was supposed to protect them, but the men held out so their families could escape up Mount Sinjar, where Mission East has been helping them ever since.<\/p>\n
The story of the Yazidis’ own resistance has not been told or documented. Journalist Tore R\u00f8rb\u00e6k and cartoonist Mikkel Sommer have remedied this with the book Shingal. The book documents with text and drawings, produced after R\u00f8rb\u00e6k’s meticulous research and the Yazidis’ detailed information, the atrocities that the UN, the European Parliament and country after country now recognise as genocide.<\/p>\n
The defence that disappeared<\/p>\n
Tore R\u00f8rb\u00e6k first met the Yazidis in northern Iraq. Here he spoke to Yazidi women who had enlisted in the Kurdish PKK army. They told of Islamic State killings, rapes and kidnappings. The story is complicated. According to R\u00f8rb\u00e6k, when Mosul fell and was taken by the Islamic State, the Iraqi government army also disintegrated. The Yazidis, Christians and other victims of the Islamic State’s purges had only the Kurdish Peshmerga army to defend them. But this army also fled with its tail between its legs as the terrorist movement approached – despite promising the minorities otherwise.<\/p>\n
– I am outraged by the Peshmerga’s failure to protect the Yazidis. Without informing the population, between 7 000 and 12 000 soldiers withdrew overnight. The population just woke up and saw that all the soldiers were gone, says R\u00f8rb\u00e6k.<\/p>\n
Yazidi men held out<\/p>\n
The Yazidi men bravely formed a front so their families could escape up Mount Sinjar, which has been known for centuries for its protective power. The Yazidis knew the mountain inside out – so the male fighters were able to form strongholds and firing positions in just the right places on the mountain, forcing Islamic State to give up on them. So the Yazidis were trapped there – 50,000 people – with nothing wet or dry until a corridor was created for emergency relief. Relief that was also provided by Mission East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"