Black record: UNITAD report documents ISIS crimes against humanity

Mustafa Kamel

A report submitted to the UN Security Council by the special advisor and head of the United Nations investigative team UNITAD revealed the crimes committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria against civilians, especially against the Yazidis, which UNITAD described as genocide and crimes against humanity, requiring urgent trials of ISIS elements held in prisons, which could start next year “if the necessary legislative steps are taken in Iraq.”

UNITAD was able to identify the names of 1,444 ISIS operatives suspected of committing crimes against Yazidis. It also identified 14 of them accused of being responsible for committing the most horrific crimes against humanity.

Genocide

There were three remarkable developments in UNITAD’s briefing to the Security Council on Monday, May 10. The first is that it described ISIS’s crimes against the Yazidis as a crime of genocide, which is the first time this legal description has been used by the investigative team.

UNITAD also described the mass executions committed by the terrorist organization at the Speicher airbase in Tikrit as a crime against humanity, and it pointed to ISIS’s practice of inciting the killing of Shiite Muslims. Evidence also indicated the terrorist group’s use of chemical and biological weapons.

The special advisor and head of the United Nations Investigation to Enhance Accountability for the Crimes Committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria (UNITAD), Karim Khan, presented his sixth report to the UN Security Council in New York, which was based on the attacks committed by ISIS against the Iraqi Yazidis in Sinjar in August 2014, as well as the mass killing of Iraqi Air Force students at Tikrit Air Academy in June 2014.

The report also reviewed the desecration and destruction that took place by ISIS in Karamlesh, Batnaya, Mosul, Bartella and Qaraqosh, in addition to the use of religious sites for weapons training and ammunition storage.

UNITAD revealed rapid developments in a new investigation opened regarding the use of chemical and biological weapons by ISIS in Iraq. The investigation found that ISIS frequently used chemical weapons against the civilian population in Iraq between 2014-2016 and also tested biological agents on prisoners.

ISIS trial

Meanwhile, Iraq is trying ISIS members as perpetrators of terrorist crimes and not as perpetrators of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes. This complicates cooperation between the commission and the Iraqi authorities in terms of sharing evidence, especially since Iraq uses the death penalty.

The Iraqi parliament is currently considering a law proposed by President Barham Salih in November 2019 that would allow an amendment to the law to allow ISIS members to be tried for international crimes.

UNITAD confirmed that there is a possibility to start trials for ISIS elements for these crimes next year “if the necessary legislative steps are taken in Iraq.”

The UNITAD mission has completed building an evidence vault and a forensic laboratory in Baghdad, enhancing the ability of its teams to analyze digital evidence and conduct forensic analyzes. The mission trains and supports the Iraqi authorities in this context, and this includes a project in Mosul under which 33,000 files, cases and related information will be digitized.

UNITAD was formed under Security Council Resolution No. 2379 for the year 2017, which was extended under Resolution 2544 at the request of the Iraqi government in 2020.

Among its tasks, according to the United Nations, is to support local efforts aimed at holding ISIS accountable by collecting, preserving and storing evidence in Iraq for actions that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by the terrorist organization to ensure that evidence is used before national courts and to complete the investigations conducted by the Iraqi authorities or the investigations conducted by the authorities in third-party countries upon their request.