Archbishop hails KRG support for UN probe into ISIS atrocities against Christians

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A top clergyman on Friday praised the support that Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has thrown behind the recent United Nations report on the so-called Islamic State’s atrocities committed against Christians in Iraq.

The UN investigative body into the crimes of ISIS, known as UNITAD, on Thursday published a 26-page report, detailing the evidence that shows the crimes against humanity committed by the terror group against the shrinking population of Christians in Iraq during its three-year reign.

The crimes, the report presented to the UN Security Council, included enslavement, forced conversion, and the destruction of the component’s religious and cultural sites.

“Without the help that came from the government of Kurdistan would never be shown to the world,” the Erbil-based Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda said in an interview with Kurdistan 24.

Warda hoped the new report would give the Christian parties and the KRG more power and support to further investigate the atrocities.

Around 2,000 Christians have fled Nineveh Plains following the ISIS takeover of the area, which was highly occupied by the members of the religious group, according to Warda, describing the report’s publishing as a “very important step”.

The Kurdish government has maintained the position to raise the international community’s awareness of the atrocities committed by the terror group that was defeated by the Iraqi and Peshmerga forces in 2017.