IS guilty of sexual violence against women and children says UN

KT News:

‘Islamic State’ group commits systematic sexual abuse of women and children says UN

The ‘Islamic State’ group (IS, also known as ISIS) has been accused by senior United Nations (UN) representatives of systematic sexual violence and child abuse, among its other barbaric acts, in Iraq and Kurdistan.“We are gravely concerned by continued reports of acts of violence, including sexual violence against women and teenage girls and boys belonging to Iraqi minorities”, said the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Mr. Nickolay Mladenov and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Zainab Hawa Bangura.

“Atrocious accounts on the abduction and detention of Yazidi, Christian, as well as Turkomen and Shabak women, girls and boys, and reports of savage rapes, are reaching us in an alarming manner”, they said, adding that some 1,500 Yazidi and Christian persons may have been forced into sexual slavery.

“We condemn, in the strongest terms, the explicit targeting of women and children and the barbaric acts the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ has perpetrated on minorities in areas under its control, and we remind all armed groups that acts of sexual violence are grave human rights violations that can be considered as war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

Today the UN has declared a ‘Level 3 Emergency’ in Iraq, reflecting the highest level of humanitarian crisis. In a statement it said 400,000 people had been displaced since June by IS attacks in north Iraq/Kurdistan and that 200,000 refugees had gone to Dohuk province in south Kurdistan.

The pro-Kurd YPG has announced that it has evacuated 100,000 Yazidi Kurds from the Sinjar mountain area to Rojava (west Kurdistan/Syria).

Iraq joins three other countries with UN Level 3 emergency status – Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.