Mientras al parecer todos los protestadores que hace no mucho tiempo tapaban las redes sociales protestando (con razón) por las muertes en Gaza, ahora no dicen ni pío ante la limpieza étnica que el grupo que se hace llamar Estado Islámico (sunnitas extremistas) está realizando en Irak y en Siria en el mejor modelo nazi. Al parecer esas personas comparten esta masacre enorme de decenas de miles de asesinados. Ahora podemos tener en claro cuanto neonazi hay suelto por el mundo. Amnistía Internacional (AI) ha publicado un informe ayer martes —Ethnic cleansing on historic scale: the Islamic State's systematic targeting of minorities in northern Iraq (Limpieza étnica a niveles históricos: Las minorías del norte de Irak, objetivo sistemático del Estado Islámico [EI])— en el que acusa a los yihadistas de perpetrar una "limpieza étnica" en el norte de Irak, donde el EI se hizo fuerte el pasado junio con la toma de Mosul.
El documento, de 26 páginas, recoge numerosos testimonios de supervivientes a las atrocidades del EI, como el del tendero Khaled Mrad, de 38 años: "Ese no era el camino hacia la montaña. Cuando miré hacia abajo vi un grupo de cuerpos. Sabía que [el EI] nos iba a matar".
Los yihadistas llevan a cabo una campaña de terror en zonas de Irak y Siria —donde pretenden instaurar un califato islamista— que consiste en practicar la crucifixión, lapidación y decapitación. Esta última brutal forma de asesinato fue la que sufrió el fotoperiosita estadounidense James Foley hace dos semanas. "Las matanzas y los secuestros que lleva a cabo el EI ofrecen nuevos y desgarradores datos que indican una oleada de limpieza étnica en el norte de Irak", señala desde la zona Donatella Rovera, investigadora y asesora para AI.
Los testimonios de los iraquíes que la ONG británica ha recopilado durante los últimos tres meses indican un modus operandi del EI muy regular: secuestran a los ciudadanos —no árabes y no seguidores de la rama suní del Islam— y los llevan a la escuela secundaria local; separan a las mujeres de los hombres y les quitan las joyas, el dinero y los teléfonos móviles. "No se dónde está mi familia [su mujer y sus siete hijos]. No se si están vivos o muertos", relata Elias Salah, un enfermero de 59 años.
Según los testimonios, en su inmensa mayoría de varones, los yihadistas les ofrecen primero convertirse al Islam. Después los suben a una camioneta "con otros 20 hombres" y los alejan de las urbes para fusilarles. "A mí me dispararon tres veces, dos en el brazo y una en la cadera", describe otro superviviente. "Cuando [los yihadistas] se marcharon, otro hombre y yo nos levantamos. Todos los demás estaban muertos", añade.
Rovera, que se encuentra actualmente en Irak, critica los "crímenes despreciables que han transformado las zonas rurales de Sinyar (norte) en campos de muerte empapados en sangre en su brutal campaña" para borrar todo rastro de las minorías iraquíes.
Rovera ha acusado también al Gobierno iraquí, aún en periodo de formación, del chií Haider Al Abadi, de hacer la vista gorda y de armar a los voluntarios contra el avance del EI. Estado Unidos y algunos países de la UE como Alemania han aprobado recientemente el envío de armas a las fuerzas kurdas —los peshmerga— para combatir a los yihadistas. Ante esta situación, la asesora de AI exige a las autoridades que se centren en la protección de los civiles —sin hacer distinciones de étnia o religión— y que los responsables de estos crímenes sean juzgados.
El Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU, reunido en Ginebra (Suiza), aprobó por unanimidad el envío de una misión especial a Irak para investigar las atrocidades perpetradas por las milicias del EI. El anuncio lo hizo el mismo día en que la organización publicó el último dato alarmante: 1.420 iraquíes murieron tan solo durante el mes de agosto como consecuencia de los combates. "Estamos frente a un monstruo terrorista", declaró ante el organismo multinacional Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, ministro iraquí de Derechos Humanos.
Fuente:El Pais de M. y http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/011/2014/en/63f30ccd-eedb-43f6-bb5b-1032f813307b/mde140112014en.pdf
ETHNIC CLEANSING
ON A HISTORIC
SCALE:
ISLAMIC STATE’S SYST
EMATIC
TARGETING
OF MINORITIES IN
NORTHERN IRAQ
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters,
members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign
to end grave abuses of human rights.
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very person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal
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First published in
2014
by
Amnesty International Ltd
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1 Easton Street
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United Kingdom
©Amnesty International
2014
Index:
MDE 14/011
/2014
English
Original language: English
Printed by
Amnesty International,
International Secretariat, United Kingdom
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The group
that calls itself the
Islamic State (IS)
1
has
carried out
ethnic cleansing
2
on a
historic scale in northern Iraq
.
Amnesty International
has found that the IS
has systematically
targeted non
-
Arab and non
-
Sunni
Muslim communities, killing
or abducting hundreds
,
possibly
thousands
,
and forcing
more than 830,000
other
s
to flee
the areas it has captured
since 10 June 2014.
E
thnic and religious minorities
–
Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shi’a, Shabak Shi’a, Yezidis,
Kakai and Sabean Mandaeans
–
have lived
together
in the
Nine
veh
province, much of it now
under IS control, for
centuries.
Today,
only those
who were unable to flee when IS fighters
seized the area remain trapped
there, under threat of death if they do not
convert to Islam
.
3
Hundreds, possibly thousands,
of
Yezidi
s, most of them women and children
from the Sinjar
region
,
were abducted as they
fled
the IS
takeover
in early August.
At the time of writing,
they
continue to be held by the IS and,
with
a few exc
eptions, little is known of their fate or
whereabouts. Some of those who managed to make contact with their families said they are
being pressured to convert to Islam and some have reported that some of the women and
children
–
both
girls and boys
–
from t
heir families were taken
to unknown locations
by their
captors. Some families say their detained relatives have
also
told them there have been cases
of rape and sexual abuse of detained women and children.
Lawyer Mirze Ezdin is among those
desperately
awa
iting news of
his family.
After patiently
listing the names and ages of 45 relatives
–
all women and children
–
abducted
by IS
fighters
in
Qiniyeh
,
he
showed
Amnesty International
a
photo of two of his nieces on his
mobile
phone.
4
Struggling to hold back t
he tears, he said:
“
Can you imagine these little ones in the hands of those criminals? Alina is barely three; she
was abducted with her mother and her nine
-
month
-
old sister; and Rosalinda, five, was
abducted with her mother and her three brothers aged eig
ht to 12. We get news from some of
them but others are missing and we don’t know if they are alive or dead or what has
happened to them.
”
H
undreds of Yezidi
men from towns and villages in the Sinjar region
,
which put up armed
resistance in a bid to repel
the IS advance
,
were captured and shot dead in cold blood, scores in large groups, others individually, seemingly in reprisal for resisting and to dissuade others from doing so. It is from these towns and villages that most of the women and children were a bducted.
Scores of Yezidi men who were captured on 3 August, when IS fighters stormed the Sinjar
region, were shown converting to Islam in a video distributed on social media around 20
August, in which an IS commander says that those who do not want to co
nvert can die of hunger and thirst “on the mountain” (a reference to
Mount Sinjar, where Yezidi fighters and some civilians have been sheltering since 3 August, surrounded by IS fighters). There is little doubt that those shown in the video converted
to sa ve their lives and in the hope of being freed.
However, even those who converted have so far not been allowed to leave
Although the overwhelming majority of the people of these minority communities
managed to flee before IS fighters reached their towns and villages, they escaped with their lives and nothing else. They had to leave their homes and everything they owned
behind and even the little they could carry especially money and jewellery – was often taken from them by IS fighters manning checkpoints on the perimeters of the areas they control.
Their homes have since been appropriated or looted by IS fighters and their supporters among the local Sunni population, and their places of worship destroyed.
While the IS has mainly targeted the minority com munities, many Arab Sunni Muslims known
or believed to oppose the IS or to have worked with the government and security forces, or
previously with the US army (present in Iraq until 2011), have likewise been forced to flee to avoid being killed, and their homes have been appropriated or destroyed.
Since 10 June, more than 830,000 people, have been forced from their homes in IS - controlled parts of northern Iraq, 6 resulting in a humanitarian crisis which prompted the UN to declare its highest level of emergency on 14 August . 7
Most of the displaced are sheltering in the semi - autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), with small numbers sheltering across the borders in Syria and Turkey . 8
The humanitarian conditions for the overwhelming majority of the hundreds of thousands of
displaced are dire – lacking shelter, many sleep in building sites, makeshift encampments
and parks with no sanitation, others in schools, halls and other public buildings. KRG
offic ials have admitted that they are overwhelmed and unable to cope, while the response of
the international community has been slow and inadequate, though the UN’s recent
designation of the crisis as its highest level of emergency should result in prompter action from the relevant international humanitarian agencies.
The forced displacement of Iraq’s ethnic and religious minorities, including some of the
region’s oldest communities, is a tragedy of historic proportions. Amnesty International’s field investigations have concluded that the IS is systematically and deliberately carrying out a program of ethnic cleansing in the areas under its control. This is not only destroying lives, but also causing irreparable damage to the fabric of Iraq’s society, and fuelling inter - ethnic, sectarian and inter - religious tensions in the region and beyond.
Entire communities in large swathes of territories in northern Iraq were abandoned to their
fate without protection from attacks by the IS when the Shi’a - dominated Iraqi army and
security forces fled the area in June .
The scale and gravity of the abuses and the urgency of the situation demand a swift and
robust response – not only to provide humanitarian assistance to those displaced and
otherwise affected by the conflict but also to ensure the protection of vulnerable communities who risk being wiped off the map of Iraq.
States havean obligation to provide equal protection to all communities within their borders.
Successive Iraqi central governments have failed to do so. Further, they have contributed to
the worsening of the situation in recent months by tolerating, encouraging and arming
sectarian militias, in particular Shi’a militias in and around the capital, Baghdad, and
in other parts of the country
. In responding to the current crisis, the Iraqi central government
and the KRG (whose armed forces now control
some of the areas abandoned by the Iraqi
army) must prioritize measures to ensure the protection of the civilian population
regardless
of religion or ethnicity
.
The
new Iraqi
central
government, whose formation is currently being negotiated, must
prioritize the
establishment
of non
-
sectarian government, military and security
institutions
that are both
willing
and able
to
restore security and the rule of law and to pr
ovide protection
and recourse for all sectors of the population
without discrimination.
At the same time, it
should
disarm and disband militias responsible for extrajudicial executions and other gross
violations and bring perpetrators to justice.
METHOD
OLOGY
This report is based on field investigations carried out by Amnesty International in northern
Iraq, including several towns and villages subsequently taken over by
the
IS, and
in
the city
of Mosul
after it fell
under IS control, between June and Sept
ember 2014. The organization
interviewed hundreds of witnesses, survivors, and victims, including the families of those who
were killed or abducted, and many others who were forcibly displaced by the actions and
threats of IS fighters. Amnesty Internationa
l also met with civil society groups, local officials,
and local and international human rights and humanitarian organizations.
Amnesty International investigated mass killings in several
parts of
the Sinjar region in the
first
half of August 2014
,
including one
carried out
on the edge of the village of
Qiniyeh
,
where scores of men were killed on 3 August and another in the village of Kocho (also known
as Kuju), where scores, possibly hundreds, were killed on 15 August.
In addit
ion to the
se
two massacres detailed below, Amnesty International
interviewed dozens
of witnesses and survivors of the killings of
smaller groups of men. In some cases the men
were captured with their families
before being
separated from the women and child
ren and
taken to nearby locations
,
where they were shot dead.
A witness to o
ne
such
mass killing in Solagh, a village
south
-
east of Sinjar city, told Amnest
y
International
9
that
on the morning of 3 August,
as he was trying to flee towards
Mount Sinjar,
he
saw vehicles with IS
fighters
in them approach
ing, and managed to conceal himself.
From
his hiding place he saw them take some civilians from a house in the western outskirts of
Solagh:
“
A white Toyota pick
-
up stopped by the house of my neighbour, Salah
Mrad Noura, who
raised a white flag to indicate they were peaceful civilians. The pick
-
up had some 14 IS men
on the back
.
They took out some 30 people from my neighbour’s house
:
men, women and
children. They put the women and children, some 20 of them, on
the back of another vehicle
which had come, a large white Kia
,
and marched the men, about nine of them, to the nearby
wadi
[dry river bed]
. There they made them kneel and shot them in the back. They were all
killed; I watched from my hiding place for a lon
g time and none of them moved. I know two
of those killed
:
my neighbo
u
r Salah Mrad Noura, who was about 80 years old, and his son
Kheiro, aged about 45 or 50
.
”
KOCHO
On
the morning of Friday 15 August the nightmare
that
had haunted the residents of Kocho
(also known as Kuju)
for the previous 12 days came to pass
,
when IS
fighters
killed
at least a
hundred, and possibly many more, of the village’s
men and boys and abducted all the women
and children.
Since
the
IS had taken control of the Sinjar region on 3
August, many of the
residents of the small Yezidi hamlet
, with its population of about 1,200,
had been trapped in
the village
some 15 km south of the town of Sinjar
, unable to flee and
in constant fear
of
being abducted
or
killed.
Survivors of the massacr
e told Amnesty International that
the IS fighters assembled
the
village residents at the secondary school, on the northern outskirt
s
of the village, where
they
separated
men and boys from women and younger children. The men were then bundled into
pick
-
up v
ehicles
–
some
15
-
20 in each vehicle
–
and driven away to different nearby
l
ocations, where they were shot.
Amnesty International has spoken to eight survivors from six different car
-
loads
, which
contained a total of over 100 men and boys. According to t
hese survivors, around 90 of these
were killed and about a dozen survived. There are believed to be some eight other survivors
from these or other groups, but it is not known for certain
how many
groups
were driven away
from the school
, and there may have
been groups where none survived
.
Because the killings
were carried out in separate groups
and at several locations, it has not been possible to
establish
how many were killed in total. Family members from outside of Kocho have received
no
news
of the fate
of the rest of those taken from the village school on the morning of 15
August
–
up to 400 other men and boys
–
and
it is feared that they were
likewise killed.
Elias Salah, a 59
-
year
-
old nurse, told Amnesty International
10
:
“
IS militants initially spoke
to our Sheikh
[
community leader
]
and said that if we handed over
our weapons we would not be harmed
. So,
we gave them our weapons but still feared they
would kill us
.
Some of them demanded that we convert to Islam, which we refused to do
,
and
threatened t
o kill us if we did not. Then later we were told that, following interventions by
Sunni Muslim tribal chiefs from Mosul, we would be spared. But we were under siege and not
allowed to leave.
..
.
“
At 11
-
11.30
am
[
on Friday 15 August
]
IS militants called all
the residents to the secondary
school, which has been their headquarters since they came to the village two weeks ago.
There they asked that we hand over our money
and
our mobile phones, and
that
the women
hand over their jewellery.
“
After about 15 minute
s they brought vehicles and started to fill them up with men and boys.
They pushed about 20 of us onto the back of a Kia p
ick
-
up vehicle and drove us about one
kilometre east of the village. They got us off the vehicle by the pool and made us crouch on
the
ground in a tight cluster and one of them photographed us. I thought then they’d let us
go after that, but they opened fire at us from behind. I was hit in the left knee, but the bullet
only grazed my knee. I let myself fall forward, as if I were dead, an
d I stayed there face down
without moving. When the shooting stopped I kept still and after they left, I ran away.
“
Five or six others were also alive and they also ran from the place. The rest were all killed. I
know two of them, they were right next to
me: Khider Matto Qasem, 28, and Ravo Mokri
Salah, about 80 years old.
“
I don’t know who the others were; I was too scared to look around, I couldn’t focus. I don’t
know what happened to my family, my wife, my seven children (my two daughters and my
five s
ons; the youngest is only 14), my son’s wife and their two children; I don’t know if they
are dead or alive or where they are.
“
I only now learned from one of the survivors from another group that my brother Amin and
his 10
-
year
-
old son ‘Asem were both ki
lled, God bless them. I can’t contact anyone as they
took our mobile phones and so I have lost all the numbers. After the killings I r
a
n to
Mount
Sinjar
. There were other survivors who also r
a
n away. I saw five others
;
one of them
,
Rafid
Sa
’
id, was badly i
njured. I found him later on Mount Sinjar; the only escape route
.
”
Two other survivors from the same group, Khider Hasan and Rafid Sa’id, interviewed
separately by Amnesty International, gave similar accounts.
11
Khider Hasan, a 17
-
year
-
old
student, who esca
ped with what looked like superficial bullet wounds to his back, told
Amnesty International
that he was also part of the first group of men and boys taken to the
village’s outskirts and shot.
“
There was no order, they
[the
IS militants
]
just filled up veh
icles indiscriminately.
My
cousin
Ghaleb Elias
and I
were pushed into the same vehicle. We were next to each other as they
lined us up face down on the ground. He was killed. He was the same age as me, and worked
as
a
labourer, mostly in construction. I ha
ve no news of what happened to my parents and my
four brothers and six sisters. Did they kill them? Did they abduct them? I don’t know anything
about them.
“
After the IS armed men who shot us
left
I r
a
n away, stopping to hide when I thought
someone
might
see me or when I could not walk any
more. I had to walk many hours to reach
Mount Sinjar.
”
Another survivor, Khaled Mrad, a 32
-
year
-
old shop owner and father of three, told Amnesty
International:
“IS militants
,
who had been controlling the village since 3
August
,
had promised repeatedly
that we would be allowed to leave
. I
thought this was the day as I followed many people from
the village
...
When we reached the school,
t
he women and children were sent to the upper
floor and we the men
were kept on the groun
d floor.
IS militants
told us to hand over our
money, our phones and any gold. Then they started to fill pick
-
up vehicles with men and to
drive away.
“
I was still thinking that they were going to take us to the mountain as had been promised.
About four
vehicles left, two at a time.
Then I was put in a vehicle with about 20 other men.
We stopped near the last house on the edge of the village and they got us off the vehicle, I
knew that they were going to kill us as this was not the way to the mountain. We
were on the
edge of a hill and as I looked down I saw a group of bodies below by the wadi.
“
They told us to stand in line and one of the men in our group, the son of the
S
heikh, told
them ‘this is not what was agreed; you were going to take us to the mou
ntain’. They shot him
multiple times. We threw ourselves to the ground and they shot at us for several minutes and
then they left.
I was shot three times, twice in the left arm and once in the left hip.
After
they left
,
another
man
, Nadir Ibrahi
m
and I
g
ot up. All the others were dead or dying.
“
Nadir and I walked for about three
kilometres
and then I heard a car come and I hid in some
straw nearby but Nadir was behind me and did not manage to hid
e
on time and was shot
dead.
I stayed hid
den
in the straw
for several hours, until the evening, and then I kept
walking towards the mountain
.”
Later that night, on the way to the mountain, Khaled met up with his younger brother, Said,
and another man, Ali Abbas Ismail, who had been part of another truckload and h
ad also
survived. Said, 23, was shot five times, three times in his left knee, once in the left hip and
once in the left shoulder. At the hospital where the brothers were being treated for their
injuries, Said showed Amnesty International a bullet doctors
had just removed from his knee.
Khaled and Said are lucky to have survived, but are now grieving for their seven brothers who
are believed to have been killed in the massacre. Elias, Jallu, Pessi, Masa’ud, Hajji, Kheiri,
and Nawaf, aged between 41 and 22,
were also at the school and
have not been heard of
since.
“It has been two weeks.
12
There is just the two of us left now.
Those who survived have
by now made it back and my brothers are not among them. I think they are all dead. I hope
that they died quick
ly, that they did not lie there in pain for hours,” Khaled said as he broke
down in tears.
But some
of the victims of the 15 August massacre
were not killed instantly, and
died of
their injuries hours, possibly days, later, having been left for dead and
being too seriously
wo
unded to drag themselves away.
Some of
the survivor
s
told Amnesty International that as
they
lay injured
they
could hear
other survivors
crying out in pain.
Salem, another survivor, who managed to hide near the massacre site for 12
days thanks to
the help of a Muslim neighbour, told Amnesty International:
“
Some could not move and could not save themselves; they lay in agony waiting to die. They
died a horrible death. I managed to drag myself away and was saved by a Muslim neighbour;
he risked his life to save me; he
is more than a brother to me.
For 12 days he brought me
food and water every night. I could not walk and had no hope of getting away and it was
becoming increasingly dangerous for him to continue to keep me there. He gav
e me
a
phone
so that I could speak with my relat
ives (in the mountain and in Kurdistan
) and after 12 days
he managed to get me
a
donkey so that I could ride to the mountain, and from there I was
evacua
ted through Syria and on to Kurdistan
.
”
A
nother
survivo
r, Khalaf
Hodeida
, a 32
-
year
-
old father of three young children, told Amnesty
International:
“
I was in the third
car
-
load
. Before me, they
[
IS
militants]
took away two other vehicles full of
men and youth. We were driven a very short distance east, maybe 2
00
-
300 metres. We were
20 or 25 crammed in the back of the pick
-
up, I don’t know for sure. When we got there they
made us stand in a row and then one of them shouted
‘Allahu Akbar’
[
‘God is Great’] and
then there was shooting. There were maybe 10 of them
,
but they were behind us
.
I don’t
know how many of them opened fire. I was hit twice, in the left hip and the left calf.
“After the shooting stopped I heard the vehicles leave and another man and I got up and ran.
I went in one direction and he in the other
. I don’t know where he is now. I don’t know where
anyone is, my children, my family. Where are they? Have they t
aken them? How can I find
them?
“
Among those killed near me was Amin Salah, the brother of Elias [the nurse who survived
the first group killin
g], and his son ‘Asem, aged 10
-
12, and seven others whose names I
know and another 10 or 12 whose names I don’t know because I could not see properly. I
was so terrified; I kept my head down and when it became quiet and I was sure they had left
I just ran
away.
”
Many of the h
undreds of women
and
children
who were abducted from
Kocho
on 15 August
are
currently held in and around
Tal
‘Afar
–
halfway between Sinjar and Mosul
–
where IS
groups are holding other abducted Yezidi civilians.
Amnesty International h
ad been in
contact with
Kocho residents
before
the massacre,
who said that
the village
then
had a
population of more than 1,200.
The organization has been unable to c
ontact them since 13
August. Relatives of some of
the abducted
women and children
have tol
d Amnesty nternational that they have not been able to make contact with them
since they were
abducted
and are extremely concerned for their safety
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