Land grabbing and transgressions continue in Naf Kendala village within the Zakho District.

A group of members of the Kurdish village of Sarsolavki in the Darkar District, led by Tayeb Sallou Aziz, vandalized the fence of a farm belonging to the village of Naf Kendala in the Zakho District. In his statement to Zowaa.org, the village’s mayor said that at 10 am on Friday, November 3, 2017, a group led by Tayeb Sallou Aziz from Sarsolavki vandalized the fence and seized 3 acres of a farm that belonged to the village of Naf Kendala. The village mayor requested for political and governmental authorities to intervene to solve the problem and to put an end to the transgression, hoping to implement the law and end all transgressions in the village led by the Kurds of neighboring villages. There is a committee from the local police heading to the village to locate the transgression site. The village mayor went on to say: There have been transgressions on the territory of the village since 1993, about 750 acres located between the village of Berseve and the village of Naf Kendala and since then we have filed complaints to the court and the security authorities, which have led no where. There has been a lack of direct intervention of the administrative authorities of the district and the district director, they formed committees to address the abuses with just decisions taken by ink on paper without any implementation and with no accountability to the abusers. This has all led us to today – where they have returned once again and grabbed another farm, given the absence of the law to deter them. The village mayor urged all relevant authorities to intervene to end the transgressions that have taken place since 1993 until today and to restore the property rights to the owners of the land. He assured that the rightful owners have the property documents that prove their ownership of the lands.