In January, the Bundestag recognized the crimes against the Yazidis in Iraq as genocide. The Federal Government's commissioner for religion and beliefs has now visited the region – and reports of ongoing suffering.
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The Federal Government's commissioner for religion and belief, Frank Schwabe, visited Iraq for almost a week. In doing so, he looked at the situation of the Yazidis and other religious minorities. During talks in Baghdad, Erbil and Dohuk and a visit to Sinjar, the main settlement area for the Yazidis in Iraq, the topic was reconstruction. But also about the perspective of resettling refugees. Now he has returned and speaks in an interview with Deutsche Welle. “The situation remains difficult,” he says. “There is still a risk that religions that have been rooted in the region for centuries or millennia will be marginalized or even disappear.”
Deutsche Welle: Mr. Schwabe, in January the Bundestag published the crimes against the Yazidis classified as genocide. Does this attitude of local German politics play a role?
Frank Schwabe: Everyone we spoke to referred to this decision by the Bundestag. Germany is held in high esteem throughout Iraq and especially in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The decision found an enormous response in Iraq. We also have a special responsibility because of the approximately 200,000 Yazidis in Germany. It's a mixture of gratitude, but also high expectation. We have the possibility of a very formative foreign and development policy. That is why we remain active beyond our previous commitment and want to put the 20 demands of the Bundestag resolution into practice.
< p>Frank Schwabe (centre) visiting Iraq in early April
DW: The genocide began in early August 2014. But many Yazidis are still unaware of the whereabouts of their relatives. To what extent does the suffering of the people in Iraq, especially in the Sinjar Mountains, still continue?
Schwabe: Germany supports projects dedicated to bringing light to the whereabouts of missing people. Cases are documented there. To help the relatives, but also to be able to pursue criminal prosecution. Otherwise, hundreds of thousands of Yazidis are still displaced. As do many Christians and other religious minorities such as the Mandaeans. Well over 100,000 Yazidis continue to live in camps. Most of them have had no real prospects for nine years now. Many Yazidi women still live with their tormentors. Because they don't know where to go.
DW: Do you see any concrete return prospects for people who want to return to northern Iraq?
Schwabe: The area of the Kurdistan-Iraq region is basically relatively safe and is developing well economically. Huge revenues from oil sales make this possible. But one cannot generalize. There are areas that are not safe in the game of the different militias. And there is generally high pressure on religious and ethnic minorities. For the area around Sinjar, a security perspective is needed with an agreement between the Iraqi central government and the northern Iraqi regional government. Germany can play an accompanying role together with other countries.
DW: Yazidis and Christians from different churches used to live in Iraq alongside a Muslim majority of Shiites and Sunnis. Pope Francis very consciously addressed this multi-religious structure when he visited Iraq in 2021. Can you still feel anything of this diversity?
Schwabe: The religions, also in the variety of Christian churches, are still there. But the number of members of religions and religious-ethnic communities has shrunk dramatically in a short period of time. With the at least military victory over the IS, the concrete threat to life and limb has decreased. But the situation remains difficult. There is still a risk that religions that have been rooted in the region for centuries or millennia will be marginalized or even disappear. There are approaches to peaceful coexistence that we also support from Germany. But the challenges remain great.
Frank Schwabe (SPD) has been the federal government's commissioner for religion and belief since January 2022.
The interview was conducted by Christoph Strack.