One million Iraqis have disappeared over the past 50 years, UN says
The UN yesterday called on Baghdad to take action after a report said one million Iraqis were victims of forced disappearances over the past five decades.
The report, by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, involved 10 independent experts who said they were “deeply concerned” that the practice has been continuing with impunity since the late 1960s.
The committee urged Iraq to immediately establish the basis to “prevent, eradicate and repair this heinous crime”.
Following decades of conflict and political violence in the country, disappearances – including enforced disappearances such as kidnappings by secret police or militia groups – have been identified in the report as “a problem of massive proportions ”.
Official estimates indicate that since 1968, between 250,000 and one million people have “disappeared”, although it is impossible to provide more precise figures.
“During the Baath era in the federal Iraq and Kurdistan region, up to 290,000 people, including some 100,000 Kurds, were forcibly disappeared as part of Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said the report.
The findings are based on a visit by the experts to Iraq from November 12 to 15.
“We are deeply concerned that enforced disappearance has been widespread over different periods, and that impunity and re-victimisation prevail,” said the report.
The visit was a new step in the committee’s interaction with Iraq, one of the first countries to ratify the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, it said.
During their visit to Iraq, the committee’s experts spoke to senior officials, families of victims and representatives of civil society.
Members heard testimonies from victims including a woman whose son disappeared after being stopped at a checkpoint while going to see a relative.
“My son went to visit his cousin,” she said. “I called him soon after he left because he had forgotten the bread I wanted him to offer my nephew.
“He replied, saying that he was at a checkpoint and some men in uniform were checking him, and that he would call me immediately afterwards. He never did.”
The woman searched for her son in hospitals and prisons without success in finding her son.
The committee of experts said the woman’s account is typical of a pattern in Iraq.
The report covers the past 50 years, beginning with the rule of Saddam until 2003.
The 2003 invasion and the pre-ISIS period was also featured.
During this time, the US military and allies detained at least 200,000 Iraqis.
Of this number, 96,000 were held at some point in prisons administered by the US or the UK.
“It is alleged that detainees were arrested without a warrant for their involvement in insurgency operations, while others were ‘civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time’,” the committee said.
In other instances, violent groups had a clear idea of who they wanted to target, including civilians.
During Iraq’s civil conflict between 2004 and 2009, militia groups loyal to Iran infiltrated the police force and kidnapped, tortured and killed tens of thousands of suspected terrorists.
Analysts say many were innocent. They included teachers, health workers and other ordinary members of the public.
On August 3, 2014, in the Yazidi-majority district of Sinjar, ISIS abducted thousands of women and girls for forced marriage or sexual slavery, while men and boys were separated, massacred and buried in mass graves.
It is estimated that around 6,800 Yazidis were abducted and about 3,100 killed over a few days.
An estimated 3,000 of the group are still missing.