UN accuses the Islamic State of ‘ ethnic cleansing ‘ in Iraq

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, denounced on Monday the “ethnic and religious cleansing” by the Islamic State (EI) in Iraq. Pillay, who has documented nearly a thousand murders since the group launched its offensive in June, asked for help from the international community and the Iraqi Kurdish government and to protect minorities. However, once recovered most of the areas they consider themselves, Kurdish forces (peshmerga) have stopped their counter waiting for political decisions.

” The IT and associated armed groups are committing horrific daily abuses and serious human rights,” said Pillay said in a statement posted on the website of the High Commission. ” Systematically take aim at men, women and children, according to their ethnic, religious or sectarian affiliation, and are ruthlessly pursuing a wide ethnic and religious diversity in the areas under their control cleaning ” adds branding those responsible made of ” crimes against humanity “.

Amnesty International had previously warned that the mass expulsion of tens of thousands of members of minorities amounted to ” ethnic cleansing.” Among the communities directly affected, the maximum charge of the UN human rights mentions Christians, Yazidis, Shabaks, Turkmen, kakais and Sabians.

Pillay reveals a massacre of 670 prisoners from jail Badush in Mosul, shortly after the hordes of EI took the city on 10 June. According to testimony gathered by UN investigators, between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners were transported by truck to a field where gunmen separated Sunnis. The rest, ” they put in four rows, ordered them to kneel and shot them.”

His statement echoed the hundreds of murders have been reported among the Yazidis as well as at least 2,500 kidnappings ago. In general, he says, ” kill the men and women and children as slaves, either take to give to the fighters or the threat of selling “.

Nor forget the 13,000 Shi’a Turkomans who are besieged by jihadists Amerli, a town halfway between Erbil and Baghdad since mid-June. The Shiite leader, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called for to be helped during prayer last Friday. Although the Iraqi army tries to supply them with helicopters, water and food have become scarce.

“Our troops control Amerli around, but they have orders to enter the city,” said El Pais Brigadier Helgurd Hikmet, spokesman for the Peshmerga. The same a little further east, in Jalawla, which marks the boundary of the territories claimed by the regional government of Kurdistan and beyond which forces will not fight unless prompted Baghdad, something that depends on achieved form a new government.

” Since Saturday, we have stopped fighting,” the military. Now only respond to the attacks, as happened in Tuz Khurmatu Sunday. Even there are operations on the western front, where Sinjar still remains in the hands of the jihadists. “The goal was to take the Mosul Dam, we got it and we are now planning the next steps,” he concludes.

Meanwhile, the threat posed by the caliphate is driving unusual diplomatic approaches. For one, the Syrian regime, become an international pariah by repression with which has silenced the desire for change of its population since 2011, has been willing to cooperate with any country in the fight against EI.

“Syria, geographically and operationally, is at the center of the international coalition to fight the Islamic State,” he said yesterday Foreign Minister Walid al- Mualem, according to Reuters. Al Mualem was responding to indications that Washington considers extending its operations against the group beyond the Iraqi border. However, the minister called for cooperation with Damascus because ” anything else will be considered an assault.”

Moreover, in a sign of concern that the jihadi cause in advance region, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. It will be the first bilateral meeting between the two rivals for regional supremacy since the election of Hasan Rohani as president of Iran last year. Tehran, which follows the Shia ritual, Riyadh accuses of being behind the EI and other radical Sunni groups because of their adherence to an extreme version of that branch of Islam. But beyond doctrinal issues, both countries are on opposite sides of the political scuffle in Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon and Yemen.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=47915

Posted by Asma Altaf on Aug 27 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.