Speicher massacre truth campaign attracts 1mn signatures

A campaign led by Iraqi civil society organisations and legal and media figures to uncover the truth behind the Speicher massacre has collected one million signatures, according to the spokeswoman for the coalition driving the efforts:

“Over 55 civil society organisations, lawmakers and popular media figures formed a coalition of resolution no.38 law from the Iraqi constitution to collect one million signatures to reveal the truth about the Speicher massacre which claimed the lives of more than 1,700 people,” said Aya Mansour.

In June 2014 Daesh killed some 1,700 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets in an attack on Camp Speicher, an Air Force College in Tikrit.

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“The coalition also demands to reveal those responsible for the fall of the city of Mosul (north) into the hands of the Islamic State, ISIS [Daesh] terrorist group in mid-2014,” Mansour added.

The coalition has been able to collect 20,000 signatures over the past three days alone, she said.

Um Mohammed, the mother of one of the men missing in the massacre, said: “My son told me two days before the massacre that he and his colleagues were moved from Baiji to Speicher Base for training purposes, but until today I do not know his fate. I have been looking for him for three years now. I demand the Iraqi state disclose the fate of our children.”

Thousands of supporters of the Sadrist Movement leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, demanded last week that Iraqi Vice President Nouri Al-Malki be tried on charges of instigating the Speicher massacre, which happened when he was prime minister.

On 21 August Iraqi authorities executed 36 convicted perpetrators of the massacre inside Nasiriyah Central Prison in Dhi Qar province in south eastern Iraq.