UN urges Iraq to investigate abduction, torture of protesters, name groups responsible
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Saturday, the United Nations published a report on the abduction of multiple demonstrators in Iraq since late October that detailed the experiences of some, including the circumstances in which they were taken and their subsequent interrogation and torture.
The Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) documented 123 cases of people who disappeared between October 1, 2019, and March 21, 2020. A total of 98 individuals have been found while the other 25 are still missing.
“Absence of accountability for these acts continues to contribute to the pervasive environment of impunity in relation to demonstration-linked reports of violations and abuses,” the UN report highlighted.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, stated, “The establishment of a high-level fact-finding committee by the new Government to investigate casualties and related harm is a crucial step toward justice and accountability.”
“The Government’s commitment to providing medical treatment for injured demonstrators and compensation to the families of victims is encouraging,” Hennis-Plasschaert added.
The United Nations has independently confirmed the deaths of 490 protesters and the injury of another 7,783. Multiple media and human rights organizations have reported that Iraqi security forces and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) militias have killed upwards of 600 protesters and wounded tens of thousands since they first took to the streets in early October to demand a better standard of living and an end to institutional corruption.
PMF militias have been accused of carrying out part of the violence, targeting demonstrators and activists with sniper rifles and carrying out targeted assassinations. Although the new UN report does not specifically name any of the militias, it points to “the involvement of armed actors with substantial levels of organisation and access to resources,” a clear PMF reference.
The report also pointed out that “abductions and disappearances took place in the midst of numerous incidents involving violations and abuses targeting activists and demonstrators, including intentional killings, shootings and attacks using knives, threats and intimidation, and the excessive and unlawful use of force in protest sites.”
The report concluded by making four recommendations to the Iraqi government, as follows:
• Make immediate efforts to comply with its obligations under international law, including by making all efforts to locate those demonstrators and activists who remain missing.
• Take immediate action to protect protesters and activists from abduction.
• Take immediate action to investigate all alleged cases of abduction, disappearance and torture/ill-treatment, and to prosecute those responsible.
• Publicly identify the so-called unidentified force, armed group or ‘militia’, behind the abductions.
Editing by John J. Catherine