UN: Civilians at risk of “collective punishment” in ISIS liberated areas of Iraq

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The United Nation’s human rights commission is concerned that civilians and families with alleged connections to former ISIS members could be subjected to forced evictions from their homes which would be a violation of the international law.

“Such actions may amount to collective punishment that is a clear contravention of the Iraqi Constitution as well as human rights and humanitarian law,” the UN human rights commission said in a statement on Friday.

“As Mosul is increasingly liberated from ISIL, we are seeing an alarming rise in threats, specifically of forced evictions, against those suspected of being ISIL members or whose relatives are alleged to be involved with ISIL – threats that have also been made in other areas,” stated Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), at a press briefing in Geneva.

The OHCHR has received several reports of “night letters” left at family’s homes believed to be affiliated with ISIS as well as being distributed in neighborhoods such as Al Heet City in Al Anbar and Qayyarah in Nineveh, Sharqat in Salahadin Governorate and around the city of Mosul.

These letters threaten people that they must leave their homes by a specific date or face forced expulsion. Many of these warnings are the result of tribal agreements which demand families of alleged ISIS affiliated members to leave their area.

Hussein Zyab, from Qayyarah, who has lost seven of his close relatives to ISIS militants in Qayyarah told Rudaw late last month that he is leading a group of locals going door to door to homes they accuse of being ISIS members or their collaborators. Their demand is to leave the town or face state or tribal laws.

“No woman, child or elderly will be hurt. None of them would be hurt, and their properties will not be confiscated,” Zyab said, “No one’s house will be burnt, or destroyed. We just ask them to sign [a paper] to leave here at the earliest time. If they refuse to do so, we have the laws of the land, and the tribal laws. We first file a complaint against them.”

Khalid al-Jabouri, a town official told Rudaw in Qayyarah that he stands by the calls to out these ISIS families. 

“Their demands are in fact legitimate, Some have lost their son because of ISIS, some two and some an entire family. That is why it is their right to ask to oust these [ISIS] families. As the City Council of Qayyarah we ask the Nineveh governor and the parliament to take a final decision in this regard.”

Colville, from the the UN Rights Office, said that people have a lot to lose as the result of the forced evictions. 

“People are at real risk of forced eviction from their homes and losing access to basic necessities, including adequate housing, food, access to health services and education,” Colville stated.

He urged the Iraqi government to halt such evictions or any other type of collective punishment.

“Illegal forced evictions are acts of vengeance that are detrimental to national reconciliation and social cohesion,” he added.

“We are extremely concerned at the situation of civilians in Mosul,” Colville said, reminding all parties involved of their obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians in an armed conflict.

Source: http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/01072017