Iraq: discovery of more than 200 mass graves of the Islamic State

The UN Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) called on the Iraqi authorities in the report presented Tuesday to clean up the sites completely to give families a certainty about the fate of their loved ones.

"The mbad graves documented in our report bear witness to terrible human losses, severe suffering and shocking cruelty," said the UN envoy for Iraq, Jan Kubis. For loved ones, it is important that funerals have some certainty about the circumstances of death. The mbad graves could also help deal with the crimes of the IS.

Bachelet: perverted ideology

The graves were created between 2014 and 2017, when the SI controlled large parts of the country. "The graves contain the remains of all the ruthless dead, including ethnic and religious minorities, who disagreed with the evil ideology and the regime of the Islamic State. ", said the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.

The exact survey on the graves and the victims must be the basis of the persecution of the perpetrators. Truth and justice demanded that the remains be recovered, identified, and returned to families, including Bachelet.

1250 bodies exhumed

According to the UN report, of the 202 mbad graves discovered, only 28 have been excavated and more than 1,250 have been exhumed. The militia of the Islamic State had conquered vast areas of Iraq in 2014 and killed thousands of police, soldiers and civilians. After fierce fighting, the Iraqi army and Kurdish and Shiite allied militias managed to take over all regions with international support last year.

Mbadacre of recruits

The mbad shooting of recruits is a particularly horrible crime on the part of the IS. In June 2014, ISIS boasted of having fired 1,700 army recruits near the city of Tikrit as a result of its advance in Iraq. They had fled the memory of the military base camp and surrendered to the extremists. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has estimated the death toll at 770.

IS supporters have posted on the Internet images showing how aligned soldiers were shot. After the release of Tikrits, the Iraqi authorities discovered at least 14 mbad graves in April 2015, in which victims of the shooting had been buried.

The mbadacre has provoked sharp criticism from the government and the army in Iraq. The families of the victims stormed parliament in Baghdad in 2014 and demanded that those responsible be held accountable. Some high-ranking soldiers reportedly fled the IS and left unarmed recruits behind.