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| Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community at the Dawodiya camp in Dohuk. Report says many of Islamic State’s slaves are Yazidis. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images |
Islamic State Militants have enslaved an estimated 3,500 individuals in Iraq,
primarily women and children from the Yazidi community, a UN report
says.
The report says the terror group has committed atrocities in Iraq that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
“This report lays bare the enduring suffering of civilians in Iraq and starkly illustrates what Iraqi refugees are attempting to escape when they flee to Europe and other regions,” said the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein. “This is the horror they face in their homelands.”
Isis has held large swaths of Iraqi territory since it rampaged across the border from Syria in a lightning offensive in the summer of 2014, conquering much of Anbar province and the plains of Nineveh as well as the city of Mosul.
In recent months the group has faced setbacks, losing the cities of Ramadi and Sinjar, the homeland of the Yazidis, who are considered by the militants to be apostates whose death or enslavement is divinely sanctioned.
The report is based on interviews with the displaced and direct testimony from victims, survivors or witnesses of rights abuses.
It tallies the staggering toll on civilians over the past two years, documenting 18,802 deaths, the wounding of more than 36,000 people and the displacement of 3.2 million inside the country, including more than a million children of school age.
Killings by shooting, beheading, bulldozing and burning alive are detailed, as well as cases of people being thrown off the top of buildings.
It says the UN has information about the murder of child soldiers and has verified reports suggesting 800 to 900 children in Mosul have been abducted for military and religious training.
The
period from January 2014 to October 2015 is covered in the report,
which was compiled by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and the office
of the high commissioner for human rights.
Pro-government forces are criticised for arbitrary arrests and retribution against civilians who they believe have aided or received support from Isis without taking the necessary precautions to verify such claims.
The UN said it had also documented the existence of mass graves in sites where Isis had been expelled, as well as ones from the era of Saddam Hussein’s rule. One such mass grave east of the southern city of Basra contained the corpses of 377 individuals including women and children, who were murdered by Baathist forces during Shia uprisings against Saddam in 1991 after his defeat in the first Gulf war by a coalition led by the United States.
The report says the terror group has committed atrocities in Iraq that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
“This report lays bare the enduring suffering of civilians in Iraq and starkly illustrates what Iraqi refugees are attempting to escape when they flee to Europe and other regions,” said the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein. “This is the horror they face in their homelands.”
Isis has held large swaths of Iraqi territory since it rampaged across the border from Syria in a lightning offensive in the summer of 2014, conquering much of Anbar province and the plains of Nineveh as well as the city of Mosul.
In recent months the group has faced setbacks, losing the cities of Ramadi and Sinjar, the homeland of the Yazidis, who are considered by the militants to be apostates whose death or enslavement is divinely sanctioned.
The report is based on interviews with the displaced and direct testimony from victims, survivors or witnesses of rights abuses.
It tallies the staggering toll on civilians over the past two years, documenting 18,802 deaths, the wounding of more than 36,000 people and the displacement of 3.2 million inside the country, including more than a million children of school age.
Killings by shooting, beheading, bulldozing and burning alive are detailed, as well as cases of people being thrown off the top of buildings.
It says the UN has information about the murder of child soldiers and has verified reports suggesting 800 to 900 children in Mosul have been abducted for military and religious training.
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| Displaced Persons Camped. CatholicNewsAgencypix |
Pro-government forces are criticised for arbitrary arrests and retribution against civilians who they believe have aided or received support from Isis without taking the necessary precautions to verify such claims.
The UN said it had also documented the existence of mass graves in sites where Isis had been expelled, as well as ones from the era of Saddam Hussein’s rule. One such mass grave east of the southern city of Basra contained the corpses of 377 individuals including women and children, who were murdered by Baathist forces during Shia uprisings against Saddam in 1991 after his defeat in the first Gulf war by a coalition led by the United States.
(c) The Guardian
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