3 days ago
Kocho massacre 11 years later: Wounds remain, justice awaits
Shafaq News — Sinjar
Eleven years after one of ISIS's worst atrocities, grief still hangs over the Iraqi village of Kocho — etched into its soil and carried in the memories of survivors.
The massacre was part of ISIS's 2014 campaign against the Yazidis, which the United Nations later recognized as genocide for its systematic killings, mass enslavement of women and girls, and the forced displacement of thousands.
In Kocho, the assault followed a 12-day siege, when ISIS militants overran the village, and herded residents into the local school. The men were executed, while the women and children were taken away to be enslaved.
For Huzni Murad, a village elder and brother of UN Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad, this day marks 'a deep wound in Kocho's memory' — the day he buried his brother.
From hiding, survivor Khedr Ismail listened to the deafening bursts of gunfire and watched friends and relatives collapse, including his father and two brothers, whose remains have yet to be found. For him, the massacre did not end with the gunfire; its echo lingers in years of waiting, unanswered questions, and the absence of justice.
Nineteen mass graves in and around Kocho hold the remains of more than 500 villagers, yet only 169 victims have been identified and reburied. Murad faults the authorities for failing to complete exhumations and return the dead to their families.
Both Murad and Ismail called on the Iraqi government and the international community to accelerate the search for the missing and return them to their families — steps they say are essential "if Kocho is to close a chapter that has haunted it for more than a decade."
