PM Barzani praises UN’s outgoing lead investigator of ISIS war crimes

Halgurd Sherwani 2021/02/14 11:06

KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (right) during a meeting with Karim Khan in Erbil, Oct. 25, 2020. (Photo: KRG)

Kurdistan ICC Karim Khan Krg UNITAD Yezidis

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Kurdistan Region, congratulated the outgoing head of the UN’s investigative body into the war crimes and other human rights abuses committed by the Islamic State in Iraq on starting his new role as prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Premier Barzani extended his congratulations and well-wishes to Karim Khan on his new post, saying in a tweet, “I’m confident you’ll continue to serve the cause of justice just as passionately as your ongoing efforts to bring justice to the victims of ISIS and the Yazidi community in particular.”

British Barristar Khan, 50, will head to his new post after serving as the founding lead investigator of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL, shortened to (UNITAD).

UNITAD’s investigation is focused on three key areas, Khan previously told the UN Security Council: crimes against the Yezidi (Ezidi) minority in the Sinjar (Shingal) district in August 2014, Islamic State crimes in Mosul between 2014 and 2016, and the mass killing of unarmed Iraqi air force cadets from the Tikrit Air Academy in June 2014.

So far, at least 12 of the 79 mass graves found have been excavated as the organization works to identify ways to use the evidence it has gathered effectively.

In a meeting with Khan in Oct. 2020, premier Barzani called for the compensation of members of the Yezidi (Ezidi) religious minority that were victimized in 2014.

Over 400,000 displaced Yezidis live outside their home of Shingal, mainly being sheltered within displacement camps in the Kurdistan Region. Since the rise of the terror group in 2014, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reports that it has hosted over 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees.

Nearly 10,000 Ezidi men, women, and children were either killed or abducted during the Islamic State’s brutal rule in Shingal, and thousands still remain missing.

Editing by John J. Catherine