CRINmail 184:
Spotlight on Iraq
Armed Conflict CRINmail 183:
In this issue:
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700 children killed
Reports of atrocities committed by Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria, led by the jihadist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - now called Islamic State - continue to horrify the world. Hundreds of thousands of people across northern Iraq are fleeing ethnic cleansing by ISIL. According to UN monitoring, up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, including in summary executions.
News broke on Friday 15 August that in the space of an hour ISIL fighters massacred at least 80 men from the Yazidi faith in a village in northern Iraq and abducted thousands of women and children. The United Nations said it had evidence that militants had killed as many as 670 prisoners in Mosul and had carried out further abuses in Iraq that amounted to crimes against humanity.
Since 3 August, when the armed group began its march to take control of the territory surrounding Sinjar, it has killed hundreds of Yazidis, abducted thousands, and forced tens of thousands more from their homes. Read testimonies from Kocho, the village ISIL tried to wipe off the map gathered by Amnesty International.
Ethnic cleansing
ISIL was formed in April 2013 under its former name, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It has since been disavowed by al-Qaeda, but has become one of the main militant groups fighting government forces in Syria and Iraq. Read a briefing on the Sunni-Shia’a conflict.
ISIL has been killing, kidnapping, and threatening religious and ethnic minorities since mid June when, in a rapid advance, ISIL-led forces took control of a number of cities in Iraq. They quickly established strongholds in Anbar Province and spread into central and northern Iraq, threatening the unity of the State. They also seized large sections of the provincial capital, Ramadi, and have a presence in a number of towns near the Turkish and Syrian borders.
However, it was the conquest of Mosul, Iraq’s second city, in June that sent shockwaves around the world. In July, ISIL ordered all Christians in Mosul to convert to Islam, pay “tribute” money, face death or leave Mosul by 19 July.
Hundreds of thousands displaced
The recent fighting in Sinjar and other areas close to Mosul, Dohuk and Kirkuk has resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The cities of Dohuk and Khanik are overwhelmed by families who have fled the fighting in Sinjar and elsewhere in northern Iraq. Many of them spent days without food and water on Mount Sinjar before finally finding refuge in schools, cultural centres and buildings under construction. According to the UN refugee agency, in all, there are more than 1.2 million internally displaced people in Iraq.
The UN Human Rights Council held a special session on September 1st to discuss the ongoing crisis in Iraq. The Council adopted a resolution urging an immediate end to the acts of violence and abuses committed against civilians in Iraq, particularly against children and people from various ethnic and religious communities and requesting the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to urgently dispatch a mission to Iraq to investigate alleged violations and abuses committed by the ISIL and associated groups.
During the UN Security Council’s second open debate on children and armed conflict this year, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, said that “ISIL has tasked boys as young as 13 to carry weapons, guard strategic locations or arrest civilians [and] other children are used as suicide bombers”.
US warplanes have been striking ISIL targets since 8 August in support of Kurdish and Iraqi forces. The UK, France, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Italy and Albania have all agreed to provide the Kurdish peshmerga militia with small arms, ammunition and other supplies. In an article published by Al Jazeera, the analyst Sharif Nashashibi explains that “The expansion and barbarity of the Islamic State group leaves no doubt that it must be stopped without delay. [...] As such, it would be difficult for those with the ability to intervene not to do so. However, they must ensure that they do not end up doing more harm than good - that is no easy feat. Taking on the Islamic State group carries great risks, despite the necessity of doing so. [...] Middle Easterners are inherently suspicious of Western intervention in the region given its destructive record. [...] In the case of Britain and particularly the US, the disastrous legacy of their invasion and occupation of Iraq is ongoing.”
Read more about the history and human rights abuses:
A history of conflict
The Iran-Iraq war
The first Gulf war
The second Gulf war
In 2010, the organisation War Child asked 180 children in southern Iraq about what scares them and what makes them feel safe. The most common fears expressed by the children were conflict-related. Many mentioned guns, explosions, kidnappings and tanks as the main things that scare them.
According to the Report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council (A/68/878–S/2014/339) issued on 15 May 2014, in 2013:
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At least 248 children were killed and 665 injured in 2013, including as a result of improvised explosive devices and in complex attacks. This is the highest number of casualties reported since 2008.
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Reports indicated the continued association of children with various armed groups.
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Reports were received on boys manning the checkpoints under the control of the Ministry of Defence after having been recruited locally with falsified identification papers.
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According to the Government, at least 391 children, including 18 girls, were being held in juvenile reformatory detention facilities (237), prisons or police stations under indictment or conviction for terrorism-related charges under article 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (2005).
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Twenty-seven attacks on schools and hospitals/medical facilities were reported, of which five were verified.
Child recruitment
According to the Report of United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on the Protection of Civilians in the Non International Armed Conflict in Iraq (covering the period between 5 June and 5 July 2014):
Children have been disproportionately affected by the current conflict. In all conflict-affected areas, child casualties due to indiscriminate or systematic attacks by armed groups and by Government shelling on populated areas have been on the rise. Credible information on recruitment and use of children as soldiers was also received and the United Nations has started documenting cases despite the sensitivity of the information and fears of families. Children are recruited by armed opposition groups, including ISIL and associated armed groups, and used as informants, for manning checkpoints and in some cases as suicide bombers. On the other hand, children are also increasingly being recruited by militias from all sides, including those supported by the Government.
Violence against women and girls
Since 2003, the deterioration of the security situation in the country has promoted a rise in tribal customs and religiously-inflected political extremism, which have had a deleterious effect on women’s rights, both inside and outside the home.
Militias have targeted women and girls for assassination, and intimidated them to stay out of public life. Increasingly, women and girls are victimised in their own homes, sometimes killed by their fathers, brothers and husbands for a wide variety of perceived transgressions that allegedly shame the family or tribe.
Trafficking in women and girls in and out of the country for sexual exploitation is widespread.
Iraqis displaced as a result of the ongoing atrocities committed by the ISIL tell horrible stories of women and girls kidnapped to used as sex slaves by ISIL fighters.
Read a briefing on minorities in Iraq.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG), Leila Zerrougui, highlighted the indiscriminate and brutal killings children suffer during armed conflict at the UN Security Council’s second open debate on children and armed conflict this year.
According to the SRSG, the multiplication of crises affecting children since the beginning of 2014 is creating unprecedented challenges that overshadow progress to protect them from the impact of war. She was appalled by the total disregard for human life shown by extremist armed groups such as the Islamic State (ISIL) and Boko Haram.
The situation also remains dire in Syria, she said as she presented the Secretary-General’s latest report on children and armed conflict. Over 191,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in Syria, which has also sent three million people fleeing to neighbouring countries in search of refuge and left a further 6.5 million internally displaced. Government air strikes on ISIL-held territory killed at least 60 civilians including 12 children over the weekend.
“ISIL has tasked boys as young as 13 to carry weapons, guard strategic locations or arrest civilians. Other children are used as suicide bombers,” said Ms. Zerrougui. According to UN monitoring, up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, including in summary executions.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram has attacked schools in Nigeria, leading to the death of at least 100 students and 70 teachers in 2013. Over 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram in April are still missing, while the armed group continues to attack and kidnap other children.
According to a new report published by Watchlist on Children and Armed conflict, children have been forcibly recruited, abducted, raped, detained, and attacked by Boko Haram and other armed groups. The conflict between Boko Haram, Nigerian security forces, and civilian self-defence militia, which started in 2009, has killed thousands of civilians and displaced an estimated 650,000 people, primarily women and children.
In Gaza, over 500 children were killed and more than 1,300 injured, Ms. Zerrougui said, calling for a thorough investigation into the impact of the war on children. Thousands of displaced families are still living in schools and access to education for the children of Gaza is expected to remain limited. At least 244 schools were damaged or destroyed by Israel’s armed forces during recent fighting.
Many other countries witnessed grave violations against children in 2013 and face similar challenges today. Instability and rising tensions in Libya, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Mali and South Sudan continue to threaten children.
The UN Security Council held an emergency session on 28 August to discuss the crisis in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between government troops and pro-Russian rebels has escalated since April when the rebels established a self-proclaimed People’s Republic.
According to a new report published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), intense fighting, including the use of heavy weaponry by both sides, in densely populated areas of eastern Ukraine, has increased the loss of civilian life, with an average of around 36 people being killed every day.
Ivan Simonovic, the UN assistant secretary general for human rights, said the number of people confirmed dead in fighting since the conflict erupted in April was now 2,729 but rose to over 3,000 if the 298 passengers and crew on the Malaysia Airlines flight were included.
A ceasefire took effect on Friday 5 September, as part of a peace roadmap intended to end the conflict.
A new report by Human Rights Watch documents cases of sexual abuse and exploitation of Somali women and girls by soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Mogadishu since 2013.
The African Union (AU) soldiers, relying on Somali intermediaries, have used a range of tactics, including humanitarian aid, to coerce vulnerable women and girls into sexual activity. They have also raped or otherwise sexually assaulted women seeking medical assistance or water at AMISOM bases. Read the report.
Closing
“We cannot afford impunity in the face of such grave violations of international law that in some cases may amount to war crimes.”
Leila Zerrougui, Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, at the UN Security Council’s open debate on children and armed conflict this year.
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