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UN Security Council extends mission of team investigating ISIS crimes in Iraq

UN Security Council extends mission of team investigating ISIS crimes in Iraq
UN Security Council extends mission of team investigating ISIS crimes in Iraq

2019-09-22 00:00:00 - Source: kurdistan 24

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously voted to extend the mission of a team charged with documenting the crimes of the Islamic State in Iraq.  

Special Advisor Karim Khan heads the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), tasked with collecting and preserving crimes perpetrated by the terrorist organization in Iraq after it took over large swaths of territory in 2014. The vote, held on Friday, authorizes of the work for another year, until Sept. 21, 2020.  

According to a UN statement, the investigation will continue its efforts to hold Islamic State members “accountable by collecting, preserving and storing evidence of the most serious crimes committed in Iraq in line with the highest possible standards.” 

Khan and his almost 80-person team have been working in Iraq for a year, so far. According to AFP, they are analyzing up to 12,000 bodies exhumed from 200 mass graves left behind by the Islamic State, 600,000 videos showing the group’s crimes, and 15,000 “internal ISIS documents.” 

The UNSC noted on Friday that the Islamic State “constitutes a global threat to international peace and security” and recognized “that holding those responsible accountable will further expose these crimes as being used as a tactic of terrorism.” 

In mid-July, Khan briefed the UNSC, outlining the focus of his investigative team in three key areas: crimes against the Yezidi (Ezidi) minority in the Sinjar (Shingal) district in August 2014, Islamic State crimes in Mosul between 2014 and 2016, and the mass killing of unarmed Iraqi air force cadets from the Tikrit Air Academy in June 2014.  

Read More: UNITAD marks ‘strong progress’ in efforts to hold ISIS accountable for crimes in Iraq 

“It’s a mountain to climb,” Khan told the council. 

“Who could have thought in the 21st century we would see crucifixion or burning a human alive in a cage, slavery, sexual slavery, throwing people off buildings, beheadings,” he added. All of this captured “with a TV camera.” 

In the days that followed, Khan called for the trial of members of the group in an international tribunal similar to that in Nuremberg that prosecuted prominent Nazi figures after World War II. 

Read More: UN team probing ISIS crimes in Iraq calls for Nuremberg-style international tribunal: report 

The UNSC is made up of five permanent member states – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US – and ten non-permanent member states which serve two-year terms. Currently, those are Belgium, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Germany, Indonesia, Kuwait, Peru, Poland, South Africa. 





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