Iraq: Un Team Releases Most Recent Report On Atrocities By Terrorists
Christian Ritscher, who is the head of the UN Investigatory Team to Advance Accountability for Da’esh atrocities, including crimes of a sexual nature perpetrated by ISIL militants. The ambassador addressed this during the meeting at the SC yesterday. It also included terrible sex offenses committed under the report released over the weekend.
This assessment follows a detailed report of a study that lasted for three years. The study investigated the formation and deployment of toxic chemicals by the al-Qaeda terrorist group targeting the Shia Kurds of Kurdistan Province in North Iraq.
“Hence, it should be noted that when we share these assessments,” Mr. Ritscher said, “they will be done within our mandate and terms of reference.”
According to Mr. Ritscher’s briefing, “UNITAD will be able to provide its preliminary results only as long as the mandate lasts until September 2024”.
Regarding that, UNITAD will also relegate some investigations that cannot be completed within a specified time, such as the attacks of the terrorist network ISIL against the city of Mosul that ruined many cultural artifacts and plundered natural resources, the genocide intent of the said.
Mr. Ritscher also mentioned the Team’s commitment to assist Iraq in formulating an adequate structure that can be used as the legal framework for scrutinizing and prosecuting international crimes. This includes the Team engaging its counter-partners in Iraq to develop a draft legislative work to get it to comply with international and customary law.
Evidence-gathering and management
Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of evidence preservation, clarifying that the 39 terabytes of information UNITAD had gathered in the last five years is proof of this. This also entails testimonies extracted from Mr. Ritshers’ interviews with local leaders who participated in the war activities involving witnesses against terrorists (mostly).
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