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LALISH, IRAQ // Thousands of Yazidis flocked to a shrine in northern Iraq to mark the New Year on Wednesday, in their biggest gathering since they became victims of mass murder by ISIL.

Wearing traditional Yazidi clothes, holding candles and paraffin lamps, they began gathering in the holy town of Lalish the day before in preparation.

The event, known by the ethno-religious minority as "Carsama Sari Sali", is meant to commemorate the creation of the universe by the angels and celebrate nature and fertility.

But the mood was sombre among the faithful, every one of whom was affected by the violence that erupted nearly three years ago when ISIL took over their traditional homeland.

"Im not happy, its not like before, because there are those who are still in the hands of Daesh," said Zoan Msaid, a Yazidi woman from the Sinjar area who now lives in a camp for displaced people. "We cannot forget our customs and traditions but I just want those who are still held to come back, thats all. We ask for nothing more."

Yazidis are neither Arab nor Muslim. In what the United Nations qualified as genocide, ISIL carried out massacres against them when the fanatics swept across northern Iraq in 2014. Most of the several hundred thousand members of the minority live in northern Iraq, mainly around Sinjar, a large town that was greatly destroyed before anti-ISIL forces retook it. ISIL fanatics captured Yazidi women and turned them into sex slaves to be sold and exchanged across their self-proclaimed "caliphate". About 3,000 of them are believed to be still in captivity.

"Of course, after three years under the domination of the jihadists who killed Yazidis and imposed mass slavery, nothing is like before because we are all suffering," said Cheir Ibrahim Keshto, a professor and expert in Yazidi culture.

"We live in sorrow now and the situation in the camps is catastrophic."

Yazda, a charity supporting Yazidi victims of extremist persecution, urged the community to continue defending its unique belief system.

"Yazda calls on our people to continue to observe their religious events to preserve the ethno-religious identity and heritage of one of the most ancient peoples," said the charitys director, Murad Ismael.

Even areas that were retaken from ISIL remained unsafe for Yazidis due to disputes between local forces for regional supremacy, the charity said.

Tensions have recently escalated between peshmerga forces n Iraqs autonomous Kurdistan region and forces from Turkeys Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), creating what Yazda said could be "more dangerous than the ongoing genocide itself." .

Nadia Murad, a prominent Yazidi human rights activists who has been campaigning worldwide to draw attention to her peoples plight, stressed in a New Year message delivered at Stanford University in California that the jihadists had not yet been held accountable.

"Our hearts have been broken as we still seek justice, and we havent found it yet," she said. Last year, Ms Murad and fellow Yazidi Lamiya Aji Bashar were jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize.

* Agence France-Presse

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Sombre mood as Iraq's Yazidis mark New Year - The National