It looks like Iraqi lives don’t matter
8,000 kidnapped or disappeared persons!!
Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi authorities to fulfill their obligation to locate the victims of enforced disappearances and hold those responsible accountable, accusing some of Al Hashed alshaabe Forces of being behind the disappearances.

The organization accused the Iraqi government of neglecting the file of the forcibly disappeared, as it said, in a lengthy report, that “since Mustafa Al-Kazemi took office as Prime Minister in May 2020, he announced that his government is working to establish a new mechanism to locate the victims of enforced disappearance, but it seems that the authorities have done little To follow up on it. “

The organization asserted that, “In every case reviewed by Human Rights Watch, the relatives did not succeed in obtaining information from the authorities about the whereabouts of the missing. None of the families heard about this specific new mechanism, nor did they contact them.” One of them added, “We always hear about the government establishing it. New committees, but we never heard that there are any results coming from these committees. “

She added that Iraqi authorities did not respond to a November 5 letter from Human Rights Watch requesting information on eight cases of disappearance that occurred between December 2019 and October 2020.

“Establishing a mechanism that does nothing, as Iraqi governments have done for years, is simply not sufficient to address chronic problems such as enforced disappearances. Ending enforced disappearances and holding security forces accountable requires a serious and sustained commitment that includes tracking,” said Belkis Wali, a researcher in the Crisis and Conflict Division at Human Rights Watch. These cases. “

The organization added that the details of the cases obtained by Human Rights Watch indicate that “the Popular Mobilization Forces” – security forces that have been under the nominal control of the prime minister since November 2016 – were most likely behind all eight cases of disappearance, stressing that these cases are a small part of the total. The disappearances that these groups are believed to have carried out over the past year.

Two years ago, Iraq witnessed an unprecedented protest movement in its size and spontaneity, during which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis demanded a complete change of the political class, the fight against corruption and unemployment, and the improvement of services.

However, the momentum of the protest movement in the country was diminished at the beginning of the year due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic and amid tension between Washington and Tehran on Iraqi soil.

And Iraqi activists have become the target of a kidnapping and assassination campaign in Baghdad and other cities in southern Iraq.

The United Nations accuses “militias” of being behind dozens of kidnappings and killings, most of which took place in recent weeks in southern Iraq.