Notable & Quotable: The Yazidi

ISIS traps 30,000 families on Mount Sinjar in Iraq, without food or water.

WSJ, Aug. 7, 2014

From a translation by the MEMRI organization of a plea on Aug. 5 by Vian Dakhil to her fellow members of the Iraqi Parliament, on behalf of the Yazidi, a religious sect whose members are besieged on Mount Sinjar by the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham:

I beg you, Mr. Speaker, my people are being slaughtered, just like all the Iraqis were slaughtered: Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Turkmens, and the Shabak people. Today, the Yazidis are being slaughtered.

Brothers, despite all the political disagreements, we want human solidarity. I speak in the name of humanity. Save us! Save us! For the past 48 hours, 30,000 families have been besieged on Mount Sinjar, without food or water. They are dying. Seventy children have died so far of thirst and suffocation. Fifty elderly people have died because of the deteriorating conditions. Our women are being taken captive and sold on the slave-market.

Mr. Speaker, we call upon the Iraqi parliament to intervene immediately to stop this massacre. . . .

We are being slaughtered, annihilated. An entire religion is being wiped off the face of the Earth. Brothers, I am calling out to you in the name of humanity! In the name of humanity, save us! Mr. Speaker, I want to . . .

Vian Dakhil breaks down crying.