ISIL suspected of genocide against Yazidis in Iraq, says UN report

ISIL suspected of genocide against Yazidis in Iraq, says UN report
By Joanna Gill with UN, Reuters, AFP
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The so-called Islamic State are suspected of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during attacks on ethnic and religious groups in Iraq.

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UN human rights investigators have leveled accusations of genocide and war crimes against the so-called Islamic State group.

A report based on interviews with more than 100 alleged victims and witnesses, called on the security council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court.

It states there was a ‘manifest pattern of attacks’ by the extremists on Yazidis, Christians and other minority groups in towns and villages across Iraq. Goverment forces and militias helping them may also have committed some war crimes while fighting the insurgency.

“No community has been spared in Iraq from ISIL’s violence, including the Yazidis, the Christians, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka’e, Kurds, Shia and indeed the Sunni,” announced Suki Nagra, Head of the UN investigation mission to Iraq. “Essentially what we’re seeing is the rich ethnic and religious diversity in Iraq that has been shattered,” she added.

The report details killings, torture, rape and sexual slavery, forced religious conversions and the conscription of children all at the hands of ISIL.

Boys aged between eight and fifteen years old described how they were separated from their mothers, and forced to convert to Islam before undergoing military training, forced to watch beheadings as part of their treatment.

Yazidis were rounded up and divided into groups of men and women. Men were taken away and shot while women and children captured by the militants were treated as ‘spoils of war’ and subjected to rape or sexual slavery, with victims as young as 6 years old.

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