UN to end in a year its probe of Islamic State extremists in Iraq at Baghdad’s request
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The Security Council on Friday (September 15) voted unanimously to end the UN probe, a year from now, into activities of Islamic State extremists in Iraq.
The voting was made at the request of the Iraqi government.
The resolution sponsored by the UK noted that Baghdad has also urged the UN investigators to hand over the evidence they have collected so far to the Iraq government so that the country’s authorities can be enabled to pursue IS members’ accountability and also those who assisted and financed “this terrorist organization.”
The Security Council had in September 2017 constituted an investigative team, also at the request of the Iraqi government, to gather evidence against the Islamic State group members which can be used in trials.
Christian Ritscher, who is heading the team, had told the council in June that the investigators were compiling evidence on the use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State extremists and advancing their documentation on the militant group’s gender-based violence and crimes against children, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Christians, and Yazidis.
The Islamic State group took over nearly one third of Iraq in 2014, along with a large part of Syrian territory and announced a self-styled caliphate across the area. However, the IS was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 after a three-year-long battle. But the IS sleeper cells continue to carry out attacks even today in both Iraq and Syria.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council that the U.N. team has backed the excavation of mass graves, and aided the return of remains of victims to the families while also working closely with Iraqi judges and prosecutors, primarily for collecting evidence.
“It has provided survivors, including of sexual and gender-based violence, with opportunities to provide testimony safely with their rights fully respected. And it has enabled psychosocial treatment in partnership with Iraq’s Ministry of Health, providing real impact for survivors,” she said.
Resolution
According to the resolution, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has to submit a report by January 15 on the recommendations to implement Iraq’s request for evidence obtained by the U.N. team.
The Security Council also asked the team to determine how evidence can be shared with other countries, with the approval of the Iraqi government, and to inform Baghdad regarding any piece of evidence already shared with third countries.
Woodward said Britain will work with the Iraqi government to continue the U.N. team’s “legacy, both in Iraq and around the world.”
On Wednesday, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, a Yazidi who was taken by Islamic State fighters and became a sexual slave, and her high-profile human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney, issued a statement highlighting their support for the team’s mission and expressing concern that its mandate might not be renewed.
(With AP inputs)
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