UNITAD highlights continuous engagement with Iraqi counterparts
The Special Adviser of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL, Christian Ritscher. Photo: UNITAD
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Special Adviser of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), Christian Ritscher, briefed the UN Security Council last week on the ninth report of the mission in Iraq, according to a press statement issued by the UNITAD.
Ritscher highlighted the continuous engagement of the team with Iraqi counterparts during the reporting period, emphasizing also that consideration and concerns of all communities impacted by ISIS crimes in Iraq remain at the forefront of the Teams’ investigative work, the statement mentioned.
Continued partnership with Iraq as explained by Ritscher involved several areas, including advanced support to capacity building for Iraqi judges, supporting the excavation of several ISIS-related mass graves in Iraq according to the annual road map agreed to with the Iraqi government and international partners, and the preservation of evidence on ISIS-related crimes, the statement explained.
“The UNITAD team so far converted 5.5 million physical pages of documentary evidence into usable digital formats, and currently supports digitization activities at six different sites in Iraq with a throughput of approximately 100,000 pages per week,” Ritscher specified.
Ritscher described key progress in the team’s investigations over the past six months encompassing UNITAD’s relentless efforts towards global accountability for ISIS crimes committed in Iraq, mainly concerning the completion of the case assessment focused on crimes committed against the Christian community in Iraq, the statement elaborated.
Crimes committed against the Christian community in Iraq substantiated preliminary findings of acts constituting crimes against humanity and war crimes, and the development and use of chemical and biological weapons by ISIS focusing on the attack on Taza Khurmatu on March 8, 2016, which generated significant volumes of battlefield evidence, the statement clarified.
Ritscher mentioned that UNITAD started to advance with its investigations into ISIS’s destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq. These investigations represent a breakthrough in the landscape of core international crimes investigations, according to the statement.
Ritscher stated that the evidence obtained shows that religious and cultural sites were either intentionally destroyed by ISIS, or taken over and occupied, sometimes for military purposes, the statement added.
“this work will provide the basis for a case assessment report, giving a detailed picture of this aspect of the crimes of ISIS, crimes that targeted the history and culture of Iraq, and that of humanity at large,” Ritscher added.
“The team now reached the next level on the path of holding ISIS perpetrators accountable for the core international crimes they committed,” Ritscher said.
“While maintaining the same dedication to our investigative lines and capacity-enhancement activities, UNITAD will also shift towards a stronger and systematic support of individual accountability proceedings of alleged members of ISIS for international crimes before competent courts,” Ritscher explained.