Watching Genocide On Liveleak
Yazidis dying on their sacred mountain
As the Taliban recently conquered Kabul, I was brought back in my mind to 2014. At that time, I was watching what was later to be declared a genocide, in real time on Liveleak. ISIS warriors were terrorising everyone and everything, wherever they advanced in Syria and Iraq.
It was the first time an Islamic Caliphate was being declared and propagated to the world through social media accounts. When atrocities were committed, the world had instant access. No pixeled images. No graphic warnings. Not if you knew where to look online.
The Yazidis
This is where I was first introduced to the Yazidis. Even before the first journalists arrived in helicopters, desperate people were posting cellphone videos on Liveleak. People in Sinjar and the surrounding areas had been going about their daily lives, when ISIS surrounded them in their homes. Yazidis were on their hit list. No mercy was to be expected. According to ISIS’s believes, Yazidis, with their ancient, mystical religion, were not people of the book. Yazidis were devil worshippers, worshipping a fallen angel – and they were to be exterminated.
All men were to be killed, while many women and children were to be sold as sex slaves on the Caliphate market places. It happened in…
