The forgotten victims in Iraq

In the early hours of 10 June last year, ISIS launched a surprise attack on the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. What followed left many people shocked. Two divisions of the Iraqi army, numbering approximately 30,000 trained and armed men, simply laid down their weapons and fled the city in the face of less than 1,000 militants. One resident of Mosul said that he was awoken in the early hours by a loud banging on the front door of his house; he went to investigate and, to his surprise, found the soldiers from the local checkpoint pleading for civilian clothes in order for them to get away.

Since that tragic night, ISIS has captured land the size of Belgium and forced the citizens of mostly Sunni areas to live under the barbaric system that it claims to represent Islam. ISIS went on to commit various crimes, such as murdering hundreds of unarmed army recruits and the slaughter of many Sunni tribesmen who refused to swear allegiance to the group. Its forces continued to grow as many disenchanted Iraqi youth join up; some are coerced under the threat of death.

At a conference in London regarding sectarianism in the Middle East recently, a senior and respected Shia cleric seemed to think that the meteoric rise of ISIS sits firmly on the shoulders of the Sunni community for accepting it and joining forces to swell its ranks; that is far from the truth. It is a result of decades of Baghdad government oppression and marginalisation of the Sunni population which set the quality of life so low for the citizens of Mosul and many Sunni-populated areas that in all of the confusion of the events of recent months many regarded what occurred as an uprising by the local tribesmen against a system that had been abusing them for years. They knew little of ISIS and the consequences that would unfold.

Just a few days after its lightning advance, the most prominent Shia scholar in Iraq, Ali Al-Sistani, issued a fatwa (religious decree) that all able-bodied males are required to take up arms to fight ISIS. In doing so, Sistani simply added fuel to the fire. Iraq’s already fragile society that had, not so long ago, managed to avoid civil war narrowly, was to be plunged into the prospect once again. Hundreds of thousands of Shia men, young and old, flooded to recruitment centres across the country to sign up. A large percentage of those were militiamen who are under the direct command of individuals like Hadi Al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Brigades, Kais Al-Khazali, the leader of the Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, and numerous other individuals whose hands are tainted with innocent Iraqi blood. The resulting force was named the Popular Mobilisation Unit (PMU) and was placed indirectly under the command of General Qasem Sulaimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force. The PMU was being backed both financially and militarily by Iran, the country that has for decades been interfering with internal Iraqi politics and fuelling the ever-growing sectarian flame in the region.

This force was then let loose upon the areas that ISIS controlled, which coincidentally happen to be populated mainly by Sunni Arabs. The PMU billed itself as a “liberator” who had been sent to save the poor citizens of areas such as Diyala, Tikrit, Fallujah and Ramadi from the claws of ISIS. Upon reaching and successfully “liberating” these areas from ISIS, PMU fighters proceeded to wreak havoc by murdering, looting and burning whole neighbourhoods. Human Rights Watch reported that in October 2014 one of their researchers witnessed “militias occupying and setting fire to homes in the proximity of Amerli in Salah al-Din province, following the retreat of ISIS fighters.” On 2 March this year the Iraqi military and the PMU launched an assault on Tikrit in order to push ISIS back. The indiscriminate shelling and aerial raids left many civilians dead and thousands of homes destroyed.

Upon entering the city revenge killings and battlefield executions were carried out. Any person who was against their ways was simply lined up and shot. Numerous videos, images and eyewitness reports from Tikrit and the surrounding provinces have shown the militias committing heinous acts that can only be described as war crimes and crimes against humanity. These range from beheadings and torture, to public beatings and the mutilation of dead bodies.

An Amnesty International report titled “Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq” claimed that many unidentified bodies are being found across the county, all handcuffed and with obvious gunshot wounds. Amnesty is quoted by Al-Jazeera as saying, “Shia militias are ruthlessly targeting Sunni civilians on a sectarian basis under the guise of fighting terrorism, in an apparent bid to punish Sunnis for the rise of ISIS and for its heinous crimes.” The report documented evidence of killings, kidnaps and unlawful abductions, provided by the victims and their families. As I write, the Iraqi army and the PMU continue to shell Fallujah and Ramadi indiscriminately, rendering thousands homeless and forcing them to flee towards the capital Baghdad, which they are unable to enter without a guarantor. Scores of elderly men and women, along with many children and new-born babies, have died after being stranded without shelter under the searing summer sun.

Government employees’ wages have been cut off to those living in areas controlled by ISIS, forcing many to rely on hand outs and various charitable organisations. The continued siege of many of the Sunni-populated areas has led to a shortage of food, fuel and medicines; many innocent people are going hungry for days on end. All of this has been largely unreported and ignored by the international community and media, the Iraqi government and Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi.

One must ask how, in this day and age, the whole Sunni Arab demographic in Iraq can be subject to such abuse and oppression. These forgotten victims are caught between ISIS and the Iraqi government, as well as the militias; they need someone to speak up for them and make their cause known. The international community must act, and quickly, to prevent further bloodshed and unnecessary loss of life.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.