United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay yesterday condemned “appalling, widespread” crimes being committed by Islamic State forces in Iraq, including mass executions of prisoners and “ethnic and religious cleansing”.
The persecution of entire communities and systematic violations by the al-Qaeda offshoot, documented by UN human rights investigators, would amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes under international law, she said in a statement.
Killings, forced conversions, slavery, sex crimes were reported
“Grave, horrific human rights violations are being committed daily by Isil and associated armed groups,” Pillay said, citing targeted killings, forced conversions, abductions, slavery, sex crimes, forced recruitment and destruction of places of worship.
“They are systematically targeting men, women and children based on their ethnic, religious or sectarian affiliation and are ruthlessly carrying out widespread ethnic and religious cleansing in the areas under their control.”
Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen were among the minorities targeted by the Sunni militant group, which has forced people to convert to their strict form of Sharia law, she said.
Islamic State insurgents have captured a third of Iraq with little resistance and declared a caliphate in the areas of Iraq and Syria it controls. It has drawn the first American air strikes in Iraq since the end of the occupation in 2011.
Last week Islamic State released a video showing one of its fighters beheading the US journalist James Foley, kidnapped in Syria in 2012.
Their wealth and military might represent a major threat to the US that may surpass that once posed by al-Qaeda, the US military says.
Some 1.2 million people have fled fighting and Isil’s advance in Iraq , the UN refugee agency says.
The al-Qaeda splinter group seized control of Mosul on June 10, in a show of strength against the Shi’ite-led Baghdad government.
Isil loaded 1,000 to 1,500 prisoners from Badush prison in Mosul onto trucks and took them to a vacant area for screening, Pillay said. Sunni inmates were taken away again on the trucks.
“Isil gunmen then yelled insults at the remaining prisoners, lined them up in four rows, ordered them to kneel and opened fire,” she said.
Up to 670 prisoners were killed by Islamic State on June 10, she said, quoting dozens of survivors and witnesses, some of whom survived by pretending to be dead.
“Such cold-blooded, systematic and intentional killings of civilians, after singling them out for their religious affiliation, may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge who steps down on August 31 after six years as UN rights boss.