Iraq vows to probe alleged sexual abuse against IS militants’ families
This photo released by Amnesty International on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 shows 33-year-old mother of six, Zahra, inside her tent in Salamiya camp for internally displaced people where she and her family have lived for 7 months. Originally from Shwra, south of Mosul, the family moved to Mosul three years ago after Zahra’s husband joined ISIS, working with the group as a cook. He was killed by an airstrike in June 2017. Amnesty says its report details the predicament of thousands of female-led families left to fend for themselves in displaced camps after male family members were killed, arbitrarily arrested or forcibly disappeared. (Claire Thomas/ Amnesty International via AP)
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Iraq has vowed to probe alleged sexual harassment of wives and children of Islamic State (IS) militants, who were placed at displacement camps in Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces.
“The Ministry of Migration and Displacement has directed two of its branches in Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces to prepare a report on the alleged sexual violence in displacement camps there,” Alghad Press website quoted Sattar Nowruz, the ministry’s spokesman, as saying Wednesday.
Nowruz’s remarks came in response to a report published by Amnesty International, which claimed that Iraqi women and children with suspected links to the Islamic State group are being denied humanitarian aid and prevented from returning to their homes, and the women are subjected to sexual violence in displacement camps.
The London-based rights group said its latest report was based on 92 interviews with women in eight camps for displaced Iraqis in the provinces of Nineveh and Salahuddin, north of Baghdad.
It said the report details the predicament of thousands of families left to fend for themselves after male relatives were killed, arbitrarily arrested or forcibly disappeared while fleeing IS-held areas in and around the northern city of Mosul.