abducted Archives

Iraqi Kurdistan: Kurdish Journalist Abducted, Killed, repeated interrogations by the KRG’s

August 26, 2016 By administrator

Wedad Hussein Ali, 28, a Kurdish journalist who was abducted in Dohuk on August 13, 2016 and later found dead.
© 2016 Private

Threatened by Security Forces Over His Reporting

(Dohuk) – An Iraqi Kurdish journalist who had been threatened by security services was abducted and found dead on August 13, 2016. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) should ensure a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into the killing of Wedad Hussein Ali, 28, who was allegedly affiliated with the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Witnesses described his apparent kidnapping by unknown assailants, who claimed to be Kurdish security forces, following repeated interrogations by the KRG’s Asayish political police forces over the past 12 months about his writings critical of Kurdish authorities.

“The KRG should provide serious answers about how it came to be that this journalist was kidnapped and killed in broad daylight, following repeated interrogations by Asayish forces,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “He is one of dozens of journalists in KRG territory who have been killed, beaten, detained, or harassed.”

In 2015, the METRO Center to Defend the Rights of Journalists, a Kurdistan journalism rights advocacy group, documented 145 cases of attacks on journalists that year including arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and unlawful killing. In 2011, following large public protests in the region, journalists faced attacks and threats, including from the security forces. In March 2011, Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 20 journalists, who said that security forces and their proxies routinely threatened, arbitrarily arrested, beat, and harassed journalists, and confiscated and destroyed their equipment.

Tariq Hussein Ali, 40, told Human Rights Watch that his brother Wedad was an accredited journalist for the pro-PKK RojNews, and also worked in the cultural office of the Dohuk governorate, part of Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

Two of Wedad Hussein Ali’s friends told Human Rights Watch that he had spent time in PKK camps two years ago, though not as a fighter. Over the last months, Asayish officers had taken Wedad in for questioning three times about his role supporting the PKK and his work as a journalist.

One of his friends said he saw a text message with a death threat on Wedad’s phone. Wedad told him the threat came from a man who he believed worked for Parastin, intelligence forces for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the governing parties in the region.

Tariq Hussein Ali said that his brother told him in July that the Asayish had detained him and ordered him either to leave the paper or provide intelligence from inside the publication. “Otherwise we will stop you,” his brother said they threatened. Tariq Hussein Ali said his brother said he had been beaten and that his ribs and shoulders were covered in dark bruises and he could not walk for 10 days after the interrogation.

Wedad ignored their threats and continued his work, his brother said, including publishing articles and Facebook posts alleging corruption within the KRG. He also wrote Facebook posts criticizing Kurdistan Democratic Party forces for abandoning the Yezidi community when the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, took over the area where they lived, killing and abducting thousands of Yezidis. Another friend said that the journalist had told him that he was in danger if he stayed in the Dohuk area.

On August 13, at 8:45 a.m., Wedad Hussein Ali dropped another brother, Sardar, 35, at the construction site where he worked near a marketplace in the Malta neighborhood of Dohuk. Sardar Hussein Ali said that 15 minutes later, he saw large crowds gathering and police cars arriving at the marketplace. He saw his brother’s empty car in the middle of the road.

A police officer told him that unidentified men had detained his brother. Another man told him he saw two unmarked cars cut off his brother’s car, and that three men inside had dragged his brother out, hooded him, forced him into one of the cars at gunpoint, and drove off in the direction of the highway. The witness said the men told Wedad they were security forces, arresting him because he had “an accident with children.” The witness said he noted the make and license numbers of both cars.

Sardar Hussein Ali said that police officers took him and the witness to the police station, questioned them and another brother, Darban, who joined them, and promised to view footage from security cameras in the shop the witness had left before the abduction. The witness later posted the details of what he had seen on Facebook, a screenshot of which Human Rights Watch reviewed. The post began with, “After I post this, maybe someone will find my body in the city street.” Four days later the witness took down the post. The Hussein Ali family said that since then his profile has been inactive and they have tried unsuccessfully to contact him.

At about 10:45 a.m., as the brothers were driving home, Darban Hussein Ali said, a policeman he knows called him to say that someone from his family was at the Azadi Hospital in Dohuk. The family went to the hospital and found Wedad’s body in the morgue. He said they asked the investigative judge in the hospital how the body got there and were told that police from Semmel, a city west of Dohuk, found it dumped on the side of the road.

Photographs of Wedad’s body, taken by his family at the morgue, that Human Rights Watch reviewed, show lacerations, abrasions, and contusions of the head, torso, and extremities. The pattern of bruising and lesions suggests they may have been caused by a blunt long cylindrical object, such as a bat or baton, a doctor who reviewed the photos said.

A senior Semmel police officer told Human Rights Watch on August 18 that they were looking into the case but had no update on the progress of the investigation.

At least two other journalists have been murdered in the KRI. Kawa Garmiani, from the town of Kalar, was shot dead on December 5, 2013, after threatening to expose corruption. Garmiani’s lawyer said that in 2014, a court sentenced Twana Khalifa, who was allegedly affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan political party, to death for Garmiani’s murder, but an appellate court reduced the sentence to life in prison. Soran Mama Hama, a journalist in Kirkuk, was killed on July 21, 2008, after receiving threats about a report he planned to publish on alleged police complicity in the city’s sex work. No one has been arrested for his death.

A number of journalists, including Sherwan Sherwan and Sabah al-Atrushi, are facing prosecution for their reporting. Isa Barzani, a retired fighter for the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces, whose Facebook posts were critical of President Masoud Barzani, was arrested on August 4, 2015, by the Parastin and held for six months, then released and barred from travelling outside the KRI.

The KRG should establish an independent investigation into Wedad Hussein Ali’s death, particularly in light of the implication of Kurdish security forces. Police should immediately release the video showing his kidnapping, as well as the report of the police who allegedly found his body.

“The authorities’ failure to prevent attacks on journalists not only denies them justice, but has a chilling effect on what they can report,” Whitson said. “The authorities should show they are actively and aggressively hunting for the culprits of this crime, and not just promising yet another bottomless investigation.”

Sarah Leah Whitson

Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/25/iraqi-kurdistan-kurdish-journalist-abducted-killed

ISIL terrorists abduct 80 young men in northern Iraq

January 4, 2015 By administrator

The ISIL Takfiri militants have abducted 80 young men from a tribe in northern Iraq.

According to Iraqi security sources on Sunday, the ISIL terrorists kidnapped 80 people from the al-Ubaid tribe in the village of Arbidha east of the city of Tikrit. report by presstv

On Saturday, ISIL militants kidnapped more than 170 civilians from the two villages of al-Shajra and Gharib in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk after accusing them of burning the terrorist group’s flag. ISIL released 160 of the hostages on Sunday.

In another mass kidnapping in September, the Takfiri group nabbed 70 people in Kirkuk for disrespecting Takfiri terrorists and setting their flag ablaze.

The ISIL terrorist group, with members from several Western countries, controls swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.

The group has been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

Despite the US establishment of an international coalition to allegedly conduct aerial strikes against ISIL positions, the raids have failed to dislodge the terrorist group.

In recent weeks, Iraqi forces have clinched decisive victories against the Takfiri terrorists operating in the Arab country.

Libya Islamists abduct 20 Egypt Christians: govt source

January 3, 2015 By administrator

By Afp

Islamist militants have abducted 20 Egyptian Christians in Libya in recent days, a source close to the government said.

The Ansar al-Sharia militia kidnapped 13 of them Saturday in the coastal city of Sirte and the rest of them there over the past few days, the source said.

Their identity was not immediately clear, except that they were said to be Coptic Christians.

Image from a video made available on October 9, 2014, by the official Islamist media outlet of Benghazi-based Islamist Ansar al-Sharia group, al-Raya Media Foundation, allegedly shows a tank, belonging to the group, in the Libyan city of Benghazi

Thousands of Egyptians work in Libya, mainly in the construction and craft sectors, and they have been targeted as the country has descended into chaos.

In February, the bodies of seven Egyptian Christians who had been shot were found near the second city of Benghazi.

And just last week, an Egyptian Coptic couple were found dead in their home in Sirte, hometown of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, who was overthrown and killed in a NATO-backed uprising three years ago.

Their 13-year-old daughter, who was kidnapped, was later found dead.

Local council chairman Yussef Tebeiqa said the attack might have been motivated by religion as money and jewellery were not taken.

Since Kadhafi’s ouster, Libya’s small Christian minority has expressed fears over Islamic extremism, especially with the rise of armed militias enforcing their own law in the absence of central control.

Sirte, 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Tripoli, is in the hands of Islamist militias, including Ansar al-Sharia, which the UN last month added to its terror list over links to Al-Qaeda and for running Islamic State group training camps.

– UN talks start Monday –

Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and has rival governments and parliaments.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recently called on the international community to act to prevent Libya from becoming a “sanctuary for terrorists”.

As well as Sirte, Tripoli and second city Benghazi are largely in the hands of militias, and the internationally recognised government has taken refuge in the remote east.

Benghazi residents said they have been suffering from shortages of electricity, water and fuel since Wednesday.

Last week, the army led its first air raids on Islamist positions in Misrata, an important base for fighters from the Islamist-led Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) coalition of militias.

On Saturday, Libya’s third city was once again hit by aerial attacks, according to military sources, who did not give any casualty figures.

Separately Saturday, Islamist fighters attacked and killed 15 soldiers in the town of Soknah, 180 kilometres southeast of Tripoli, a source close to the government said.

Some of the troops were shot dead and others decapitated by militants who have pledged allegiance to IS, the source added.

UN-brokered talks aimed at ending months of violence and political deadlock in the North African nation are scheduled to begin on Monday.

A UN diplomat said the initiative calls for a ceasefire as well as a withdrawal of all militias and the disarmament of the warring sides.

Libya’s internationally recognised parliament has voted not to attend the negotiations if the rival legislature in Tripoli is party to the talks.

Last month, leaders in the sub-Saharan Sahel region of Africa meeting in Mauritania called on the United Nations to organise an international force “to neutralise the armed groups” in Libya.

Libya’s violence has drawn strong condemnation from both the UN and European Union, and rights group Amnesty International has accused several factions of war crimes.

Iraq’s Sole Yazidi Lawmaker Says 25,000 Girls Abducted By IS To Be Raped, Sold

November 5, 2014 By administrator

By Freshta Jalalzai and Luke Johnson

Iraq’s only ethnic Yazidi member of parliament says that the human rights situation in her country is “deteriorating,” with Islamic State (IS) militants kidnapping, raping, and selling Yazidi women.

“They are still without any shelter. They are sleeping on the streets. The situation is not good and the winter is [advancing], and it’s raining, actually, in Iraq [now]. So the situation is deteriorating,” legislator Vian Dakhil told RFE/RL in an October 8 telephone interview from Iraq’s Kurdish region.

Dakhil, who has been cited by U.S. President Barack Obama, was named the winner of the 2014 Anna Politkovskaya Award on October 6 by the organization Reach All Women in War. The award, named after the murdered Russian journalist, honors women working to help those trapped in conflict.

The lawmaker, who is currently recovering from injuries she suffered in an August 12 helicopter crash on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, said that while IS militants have forced Christian women from their homes, Yazidi women often suffer worse fates.

“Only Yazidi women are kidnapped. We don’t know, actually, why exactly the Yazidi women [are targeted],” she said.

Dakhil says that of the more than 500,000 Yazidis in Iraq, some 25,000 Yazidi girls have been abducted by IS militants.

“We don’t know exactly [where all of them are], but some are [kept] at [various] prisons here, still in Iraq, and some have been taken to Syria, and some are in Mosul,” she said. “They are taken to be raped, and they are selling them — $150 for a girl.”

Dakhil called on the international community to step in to help the plight of the Kurdish religious and ethnic minority that has faced religious persecution for centuries and that has been dubbed “devil worshippers” by some Muslims.

“I ask every government — not only here — to take some action to save these people here because the situation is really bad. What is happening here cannot be solved by [the] Iraqi government only,” she said.

Dakhil gained international attention in August after making an impassioned plea to the Iraqi parliament about Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, which was surrounded at the time by IS militants. She called it genocide.

“My family is being butchered, just like all Iraqis are being killed. … And today, the Yazidis are being slaughtered. Brothers, away from all the political disputes, we want humanitarian solidarity. I am speaking here in the name of humanity. Save us! Save us!” she told lawmakers on August 5.

The speaker of parliament interrupted her speech, while others shushed her emotional address, after which she collapsed.

The speech caught the attention of the U.S. president, who referenced her on August 7 when announcing U.S. air strikes against IS militants and a humanitarian aid effort to rescue the Yazidis.

“Earlier this week, one Iraqi in the area cried to the world, ‘There is no one coming to help.’ Well today, America is coming to help,” Obama said.

‘What Would You Feel?’

Dakhil broke both legs and several ribs in an August 12 helicopter crash on Mount Sinjar. The pilot of the aircraft, which was carrying about 35 people, was killed in the accident, while “New York Times” reporter Alissa Rubin was injured.

Dakhil said that she plans to return to parliament once she is fully healed.

She also asked Western Muslim women who are supporting IS militants — an estimated 30 of whom have actually traveled to Iraq or Syria — to look at what the group, which is also known as ISIL, is doing to Yazidi women.

“Every girl [in the West] who is supporting ISIL should put herself in any [local] girl’s [shoes] and see what she has gone through. Twelve-year-old girls [are being] raped. Ten-year-old girls [are being] raped. I would like to ask [women supporting ISIL], if she was in their situation, what would she feel? If she was from your family, what would you feel?” Dakhil said.

“This girl could be your daughter, she could be your sister, she could be your neighbor,” she continued. “[Would] you be totally comfortable if someone raped your daughter, or your sister, or your neighbor?”