[Occupymendocino] Iraqi human rights abuses

[ELLEN ROSSER]

*43* of *111,341*



[image: Print all]
[image: In new window]
[CPTnet] IRAQ: As ISIS atrocities denounced, human rights abuses of Iraqi
forces underreported
Inbox
x
CPTnet: the news service of CPT <cptnet at mailman.cpt.org>
11:56 AM (8 hours ago)
to inbound+cptnet

To view the on-line version click here.
<http://cpt.org/cptnet/2015/08/27/iraq-isis-atrocities-denounced-human-rights-abuses-iraqi-forces-underreported>

CPTnet
27 August 2015
*IRAQ: As ISIS atrocities denounced, human rights abuses of Iraqi forces
underreported*

by Harmeet Sooden

[Note: Sooden's piece has been adapted for CPTnet.  The original appeared
in *The New Zealand Herald.
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11498976>*
]

Iraq's civilians are caught between Scylla and Charybdis
<https://odysseustracks.wordpress.com/following-odysseus-footprints/step-9-scylla-and-charybdis/>—between
two dire alternatives: on the one side, opposition groups including ISIS;
on the other, the US-led coalition and Iran. While human rights violations
committed by ISIS are widely condemned, those committed coalition partners,
including Iraq, are underreported.

Since the beginning of the conflict, human rights organisations have been
implicating coalition members in human rights violations that may
constitute war crimes. Major coalition contributors such as the US, Britain
and Australia have a poor human rights record in Iraq. The Iraqi
Government, in particular, is responsible for widespread abuses, mainly
against Iraq's Sunni population.
Harmeet Sooden (second from left) interviewing a displaced Iraqi family in
Arbat IDP Camp in May. Iraqi forces
displaced up to 85 per cent of the camp’s 17,300 residents.

Iraqi security forces have engaged in torture, hostage-taking, and summary
execution
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/17/how-iraqi-forces-are-destroying-their-own-best-shot-peace>
of
civilians, including women and children; beheading, lynching, and
immolating captives, desecrating corpses, and celebrating the atrocities in
photographs and videos posted online; looting and wanton destruction of
property
<https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/03/18/after-liberation-came-destruction/iraqi-militias-and-aftermath-amerli>,
and shelling and bombing residential areas and hospitals. Iraqi and Kurdish
authorities sometimes prevent families fleeing the fighting from reaching
safer parts of the country. Iraqi forces have also established "death zones
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/17/us-mideast-crisis-baghdad-specialreport-idUSKBN0JV10J20141217>"
around Baghdad.

Coalition airstrikes often precede abuses by Iraqi forces. Not only are the
airstrikes effectively providing cover for what appears to be ethnic
cleansing
<http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/28/the-united-states-is-providing-air-cover-for-ethnic-cleansing-in-iraq-shiite-militias-isis/>
in
areas re-captured from ISIS, but they are also directly causing civilian
deaths that may amount to war crimes. According to the Red Cross, the
airstrikes are compounding the humanitarian consequences of the conflict.

UN agencies warn that Iraq is "on the brink of humanitarian disaster" due
to the escalating conflict between the US-led coalition and opposition
forces, and the severe shortfall in international funding. At least 3.1
million Iraqis have been internally displaced since January 2014. A total
of 8.2 million people now require immediate humanitarian support.

The situation has deteriorated to the point where "[a]uthorities in Iraqi
Kurdistan suspect that displaced people are selling their kidneys to feed
their families." At the same time, it is becoming increasingly dangerous
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/24/us-ngo-risks-idUSKCN0HJ0VV20140924>
for
humanitarian workers to carry out their work.

The UN has concluded that civilians are the primary targets
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/report-civilians-main-target-iraq-conflict-150713074526495.html>
of
the conflict in Iraq.

In late June, New Zealand's Task Group Taji completed its first eight-week
training course for troops from the 76th Brigade, a formation within the
Iraqi Army's 16th Division. The division was formed to replace the
US-trained units that collapsed in 2014 when ISIS seized the Mosul region.
It is composed of new recruits as well as soldiers who fled during last
year's assault.

The training cannot address the root causes of the coalition's human rights
violations, including the structural corruption and sectarianism
<http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/iraq-crisis-west-must-take-up-tehrans-offer-to-block-an-isis-victory-9537866.html>
introduced
into Iraq's military and state institutions after the 2003 US-led invasion.
As the 76th Brigade deploys to the frontline, possibly to join the Ramadi
offensive, the NZDF cannot eliminate the risk of the training offering the
Iraqi army greater means to worsen the human rights situation.

Several Iraqi soldiers receiving training at Taji have openly told
journalists
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/some-iraqi-troops-moonlight-with-militias-1428881598>
that
"they actively served on their days off with Shiite militia - some...still
listed by the US as terrorist groups", some also sponsored by Iran. The UN
has reported pro-government militias, including the popular mobilisation
forces (PMF), "seem to operate with total impunity, leaving a trail of
death and destruction in their wake" that often rivals the depredations of
ISIS.

UNICEF has confirmed
<http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/CBDDCE1B91133BFD85257E61005746D0> reports
of militias from all sides, including those supported by the Iraqi
Government, recruiting children. The PMF is reportedly
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/iraq-shiite-militia-summer-camps-teens-learn-combat-techniques-isis/>
providing
combat training to children in summer camps established throughout the
country. Militias fighting alongside Iraqi and Kurdish forces are using
armed boys and girls on the frontline - some as young as ten.  Enlisting
children under the age of fifteen or using them to engage in hostilities is
a war crime.

Sectarian abuses continue unabated under the government of the new Iraqi
leader, Haider al-Abadi. Yet, the New Zealand Government insists on backing
<http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-%E2%80%98confident%E2%80%99-iraqi-government-and-soldiers-brownlee-says-173825>
a
regime that is showing little regard for civilians. When coalition forces
were poised to re-conquer Tikrit in March, Prime Minister al-Abadi said in
a speech to the Iraqi parliament: "There is no neutrality in the battle
against ISIS. If someone is being neutral with ISIS, then he is one of
them." His words epitomise the dilemma civilians face in areas where ISIS
is active.

 There is a straightforward way New Zealand can begin to protect the people
of Iraq: namely, by withdrawing its support for the human rights violators
in the coalition, and accepting that worthwhile alternatives exist
<http://www.ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Testimony-CPC-hearing-ISIS-AUMF-3-17-15.pdf>.
New Zealand policymakers can get away with reckless policies so long as New
Zealanders keep silent and tolerate them.

 *Harmeet Sooden was kidnapped in Iraq in 2005 while working for Christian
Peacemaker Teams and held hostage for nearly four months. Sooden has
recently returned from Iraqi Kurdistan, where he was working on a human
rights project assessing communal tensions in a camp for internally
displaced persons.*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20150827/794cb273/attachment.html