Prague, Oct 12 (CTK) – Islamic State (IS) militants committing crimes will continue doing the same in other parts of the world within other groups after IS is defeated unless they are punished now, Yazidi Nadia Murad, winner of this year’s international Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, said yesterday.
Murad spoke at a conference held at the Prague Crossroads, an international spiritual centre, one of the projects of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Foundation Vize 97, in the long-deconsecrated Church of St. Anne.
Murad, a member of the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq which is terrorised by IS followers, said until IS members are punished, the Yazidis cannot return home, and that they want to return.
Murad said IS massacred her family and she was captured. She, together with other women, was raped and tortured by IS members until she succeeded in escaping.
Murad said IS members were proud of themselves when enslaving, kidnapping and raping them. Some even recorded what they were doing, she added.
Since she escaped, she has been touring the world, trying to alert people to the crimes being committed on the IS-controlled territory.
Murad said she is one of the thousands who have escaped, but further thousands are still held by IS.
Yazidis live mainly in northern Iraq. In January, the United Nations said IS radicals have enslaved up to 3500 people in Iraq. They are mainly women and children most of whom come from the Yazidi community.
Murad said the Vaclav Havel Prize encourages her in her effort to change the situation in Iraq.
The prize has been awarded for the fourth time this year.
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