Iraq Asks UN to Collect Evidence to Prosecute ISIL Crimes

Rasa - Iraq asked the UN Security Council for assistance in collecting evidence to prosecute militants of ISIL for possible crimes against humanity.

News ID: 431754

Date: 17 August 2017 - 22:56

RNA - Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that his government and the United Kingdom are working on a draft Security Council resolution seeking assistance, Kurdistan24 reported.

It was sent more than five months after human rights lawyer Amal Clooney urged Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send a letter to the council so it can vote to set up an investigation into crimes by IS militants in Iraq.

Clooney represents victims of ISIL rapes and kidnappings from Iraq's Ezadi community. The lawyer said in early March that the world's nations must not let ISIL "get away with genocide."

Amal Clooney welcomed al-Jaafari's letter as an important first step to bring ISIL members to justice. But she cautioned that it will only be meaningful if the Security Council acts promptly so evidence can be collected of crimes by ISIL.

"Ezadis and other ISIL victims want justice in a court of law, and they deserve nothing less," Clooney said in a statement. "I hope that the Iraqi government's letter will mark the beginning of the end of impunity for genocide and other crimes that ISIL is committing in Iraq and around the world."

Britain's deputy UN ambassador, Jonathan Allen, said the United Kingdom is delighted the Iraqi government's letter makes clear it wants accountability. He noted that Iraq, Britain and Belgium launched a campaign last September to prosecute ISIL crimes.

Allen said London will work to put forward a resolution to achieve accountability, "leaving no hiding place for ISIL anywhere."

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters: "Of course we'll support it, but we'll have to see the resolution."

Britain's UN ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said in March that the aim of a Security Council resolution would be to assist Iraq "with the difficult but crucial challenge of preserving the huge amount of evidence of ISIL crimes committed on Iraqi territory."

In the letter, Al-Jaafari praised Iraq's armed forces for recently liberating the city of Mosul from "the ISIL terrorist organization" and for "brilliant military victories with the support and cooperation of the international coalition."

"The crimes committed by the ISIL terrorist organization against civilians and destruction of infrastructure and archaeological sites in Iraq are crimes against humanity, which makes it important to bring its perpetrators from ISIL terrorist gangs to justice, in accordance with the Iraqi law," he said.

In this light, al-Jaafari said, "we request assistance of the international community to get benefited from international expertise to criminalize ISIL terrorist entity."

The foreign minister underlined Iraq's "sovereignty and jurisdiction" in both negotiating and implementing any Security Council resolution.

A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Wednesday that work on a resolution was just getting started.

In March, Clooney said it was initially Iraq's idea to involve the United Nations and she told the Iraqi prime minister that sending a letter "would silence those who doubt your commitment to bring ISIL to justice."

If no letter is forthcoming, she said, the Security Council could act without Iraq's consent or it could refer the terror group to the International Criminal Court, or the General Assembly could establish "an accountability mechanism" as it did for crimes in Syria in December. The secretary-general could also launch an investigation, she said.

Nadia Murad, an Ezadi survivor and UN goodwill ambassador, said Wednesday she was grateful to Iraq for taking a first step toward justice.

"Victims deserve a meaningful accountability mechanism in which they trust and I hope the Security Council resolution will reflect that," she said in a statement.

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