Thursday, April 16, 2015

Blog #9: Iraqi Leader Confirms Investigation Into Human Rights Abuses


Today, Haider al-Abadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said that the perpetrators of human rights abuses among his security forces and Shi’a militia will be held accountable for their actions. He stated that they needed to crack down on the abuses and excesses of the small minority of fighters that do not follow the government’s policies. He also stated that these allegations of criminal conduct are being investigated. However, he never mentioned whether the fighters guilty of ISIS-like crimes have been brought to justice yet. The people involved will be held accountable and prosecuted with the fullest weight of the law. He stated in his speech that the government’s priority was reducing ethic, secretariat tensions and divisions in Iraq. ABC News also confronted the Iraqi military for photos that had been posted on social media of committing war crimes. One photo shows a person from the military stepping on two severed heads. Another showed a young boy being gunned down in cold blood.
            The Iraqi government needs to stop delaying prosecuting these people. The war crimes that committed and found in the photos on social media were discovered in February. There has not been anything done with this. Some of these photos were extremely horrifying, containing photos of beheadings, torturing and executions and should not have been posted anywhere. They claim to have a good Iraqi justice system, however nothing has been done to serve justice.  Certain units of the Iraqi Security Forces have been barred from receiving weapons and training because of their human rights violations in the past. 

Emily Burris

11:44 pm

04/16/2015

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