ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has published a report on violations against Iraqi activists at the hands of “unidentified groups” over the past two years throughout the country that include assassinations, kidnappings, and torture.
The report, entitled “Accountability for Human Rights Violations and Abuses by Unidentified Armed Elements,” includes testimonies of victims’ families, a wide range of information surrounding large numbers of violent acts against those organizing and participating in a popular protest movement decrying institutional corruption, poor services, and a low standard of living.
Between Oct. 2019 and May 15, 2021, read the report, “UNAMI documented 48 incidents of attempted or completed targeted killings of protestors and critics” as part of incidents largely blamed on Iranian-backed militias of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that wield considerable military and political power in Iraq.
The report, in its own words, “focuses on the steps taken by the Iraqi authorities to ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses linked to these demonstrations, in particular those attributed to ‘unidentified armed elements’ frequently referred to by victims and witnesses as ‘militia.'”
UNAMI “defines ‘unidentified armed elements’ as armed actors not clearly identifiable as regular state security forces,” though “may have various links to the state and/or political parties. The term ‘militia,’ it says, is “terminology commonly used in Iraq to describe armed groups operating outside state control.”
Taken together, these are clear and unambiguous references to PMF militias.
“Allow me to be frank with you,” said the father of one of the fallen victims to UN researchers. “We all know who the killers are, but do you think the authorities dare to mention their names? The Government knows exactly who the killers are, and they are affiliated to the political parties and the ‘militia.’…
