The Killing Fields in Northern Iraq
PARTNER
Amnesty International
Amnesty International works for human rights. They vouch for freedom, equality and justice. Amnesty International strives for a world where everyone enjoys the rights that are recorded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty does this by carrying out research and campaigns aimed to prevent and stop serious violations of these rights.
Amnesty International has evidence that jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) are guilty of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, summary executions and abduction of ethnic and religious minorities in northern Iraq.
In a new report (Ethnic cleansing on historic scale, September 2014),shocking testimonies are given by survivors of mass murders committed by IS. They describe how dozens of men and boys in the Sinjar region in northern Iraq were rounded up by IS and massacred. The victims were driven in pick-up trucks to a deserted place and executed there. In addition, hundreds, if not thousands of men, women and children of the Yezidi minority have been abducted since IS has had the region in its grip.
Killing fields
According to Donatella Rovera, on site crisis response adviser, the mass murders and abductions carried out by IS provide harrowing evidence that ethnic cleansing is taking place on a large scale in the north of Iraq. ‘The Islamic State is carrying out despicable crimes and has transformed rural areas of Sinjar into blood-soaked killing fields in its brutal campaign to obliterate all trace of non- Arabs and non-Sunni Muslims.’
Amnesty collected evidence of several massacres in Sinjar. Two of the most deadly incidents occurred in the villages of Qiniyeh and Kocho. There, the number of murdered inhabitants has risen to hundreds. Groups of men and boys, including young children of 12 years, were taken away and executed.
Where are the abducted Yezidis?
The fate of hundreds of Yezidis who were abducted by IS remains unknown. IS fighters threaten prisoners with rape or assault or pressure them to convert to Islam. In some cases, entire families have been abducted.
Download the report Ethnic Cleansing on historic scale.
