The first brick is laid for New Kocho village and Kocho Cemetery is officially opened
Today, the first brick was laid for New Kocho village as work begins to build a new home for survivors of the Kocho Massacre.
On 15th August 2014, 518 Yazidis were killed by ISIS, and their village was completely destroyed. The majority of men and older women were murdered while the younger women and children were taken into captivity. Over 17 mass graves have been discovered in the area, making it too traumatic for survivors to re-settle there.
For the past few years Nadia’s Initiative, whose founder and president Nadia Murad is a Kocho survivor, has worked to support the creation of a new village.
This new community will be more than buildings and physical structures for the villagers, but a crucial symbol that is part of the effort to deliver justice and reparations for the community. With funding from USAID, Nadia’s Initiative and IOM Iraq will create over 130 homes for nearly 520 survivors, with green spaces, a school, a community center, a health center, and space for small shops.
Nadia Murad said: “Growing up in Kocho, this was not the future I envisioned for my village. I had imagined a Kocho where I could follow in the footsteps of the village's women, like my mother, to raise a family and grow old alongside my friends and neighbors. The 2014 massacre changed everything. However, with this new village, we must continue to tell the story of Kocho and build a strong, vibrant community.”
On the same day as the foundations were laid for the new village, a ceremony was held to officially open Kocho Cemetery. The newly built graveyard will be the final resting place for hundreds of men, women, boys, and girls from Kocho who were murdered by ISIS on 15th August 2014.
Though only 153 remains have been returned to their families and buried there so far, the effort to exhume and return the remains of Yazidis from mass graves across the region continues.
Kocho Cemetery was built by Nadia’s Initiative, IOM Iraq, and USAID at the request of survivors who wish to be reunited with their loved ones and lay them to rest with dignity.
Through the act of burying family and friends, not only are survivors able to begin the healing process, but they are also ensuring that Yazidi customs and rites endure. In doing so they are defying ISIS’s aim of eliminating the community and their culture.
While the construction of Kocho Cemetery and New Kocho represent an important step toward justice for survivors, it should not be seen as the last. Much more remains to be done, including preserving the old village to ensure future generations remember the events of 2014.
The suffering of Kocho survivors and the wider Yazidi community will persist as long as thousands remain missing and the remains of those killed during the genocide have yet to be identified and returned.
Today serves as an important milestone in delivering justice to Yazidis, as well as a call to action for the critical work that still lies ahead.
***************************
The creation of New Kocho village is being supported by Nadia’s Initiative, IOM Iraq, UNDP Iraq, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Kocho Cemetery was supported by Nadia’s Initiative, IOM Iraq, and USAID.
