ISIS LEAVES 200 MASS GRAVES IN NORTH AND WEST IRAQ
▶ Estimates suggest between 6,000 and 12,000 victims buried at the sites
Nearly a year after Iraq declared victory over ISIS, the UN says it has identified more than 200 mass graves in western and northern parts of the country.
The finds are considered an important step that could shed light on the fate of thousands who have gone missing since 2014 and deliver justice to the families of those killed.
Nearly half of the sites are in Nineveh province, which contains the Khasfa sinkhole, believed to be the largest of the mass graves, according to a report published yesterday by the United Nations in Iraq and its human rights office. The UN said as many as 4,000 people are believed to be buried at the site, south of Mosul – the former ISIS capital in Iraq.
The remaining sites are distributed in the northern regions of Kirkuk and Salaheddin and Anbar, in the west.
The UN estimates that between 6,000 and more than 12,000 victims are buried in these sites, including women, children, the elderly and members of the Iraqi armed forces and police.
“The mass grave sites documented in our report are a testament to harrowing human loss, profound suffering and shocking cruelty,” said the UN’s representative in Iraq, Jan Kubis.
Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The National that the exhumation of these sites was critical to securing justice and accountability in post-ISIS Iraq.
“During the battles against ISIS, we saw militants and Iraqi forces committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. These grave sites contain the best forensic evidence of these breaches,” she said. The exhumation of these grave sites, Ms Wille said, would not only allow for justice to be served to the families of victims killed during the war against ISIS, but was also the only way to help determine the fate of thousands of people who have gone missing.
“Thousands of families across Iraq have missing family members, some are presumed dead, but their relatives hold on to hopes that they may still be held by ISIS in other countries such as Syria.
“Exhumations of these grave sites is the only way to give them closure,” Ms Wille said.
According to the UN, out of the hundreds of sites, only 28 mass graves have been excavated and the remains of 1,258 bodies have been exhumed by the Mass Graves Directorate.
Ms Wille said that some of the unearthed sites have been only partially exhumed. “We have reason to believe there may be more bodies buried in the ground.”
The rights group researcher also noted that the exhumation of the mass graves had not always been done in a systematic manner compliant with international standards, which, in turn, compromise their value as evidence and undermines attempts to use them to ensure justice and accountability.
The Iraqi government body responsible for preserving mass graves says it is underfunded and understaffed, and cannot adequately protect and investigate the sites, which are still littered with unexploded ordnance.
ISIS overran large parts of Iraq in 2014, terrorising residents and executing fighters and civilians en masse. The UN
has said previously that almost 33,000 civilians were killed by the group in Iraq, with more than 55,000 injured.
The militants also targeted members of ethnic and religious minorities, including Yazidis, 3,000 of whom are still missing.
Murad Ismael, executive director and co-founder of Yazda, a non-profit humanitarian and advocacy organisation that documents mass graves, said that there is a chance that the exhumation of these sites will allow for the identification of some of the missing Yazidis. However, he expects the majority of those missing are not buried in mass graves, but may still be held by the group in other countries.
UN investigators in August began collecting evidence on war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide for Iraqi courts to use in trials of accused ISIS militants. However, Ms Wille said, they have not used evidence contained in mass graves in their prosecution.
The militants targeted members of ethnic and religious minorities, including Yazidis