Amnesty International has accused the Kurdish Peshmerga of committing possible war crimes by forcibly uprooting and destroying the homes of Arab communities in northern Iraq, as they battle the Islamic State.
In a new report, Banished and Dispossessed: Forced displacement and deliberate destruction in northern Iraq, the human rights organisation said satellite imagery had revealed “evidence of widespread destruction by Peshmerga forces” and that in some cases it was carried out by “Yezidi militias and Kurdish armed groups from Syria and Turkey operating in coordination with the Peshmerga”.
"In some villages, nothing is left, not even a single house," said Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Advisor Donatella Rovera. "Under international law, such deliberate destruction is very clearly a war crime."
“KRG forces have a duty to bring to justice in fair trials individuals who are suspected of having aided and abetted IS crimes. But they must not punish entire communities for crimes perpetrated by some of their members or based on vague, discriminatory and unsubstantiated suspicions that they support IS,” Ms Rovera added.
“It is also critical that the international community - including members of the US-led coalition fighting IS such as the UK and Germany and others who are backing the Peshmerga forces - publicly condemn all such violations of international humanitarian law,” she said.
“They must also ensure that any assistance they are providing to the KRG is not fuelling such abuses.”
In a new report, Banished and Dispossessed: Forced displacement and deliberate destruction in northern Iraq, the human rights organisation said satellite imagery had revealed “evidence of widespread destruction by Peshmerga forces” and that in some cases it was carried out by “Yezidi militias and Kurdish armed groups from Syria and Turkey operating in coordination with the Peshmerga”.
"In some villages, nothing is left, not even a single house," said Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Advisor Donatella Rovera. "Under international law, such deliberate destruction is very clearly a war crime."
“KRG forces have a duty to bring to justice in fair trials individuals who are suspected of having aided and abetted IS crimes. But they must not punish entire communities for crimes perpetrated by some of their members or based on vague, discriminatory and unsubstantiated suspicions that they support IS,” Ms Rovera added.
“It is also critical that the international community - including members of the US-led coalition fighting IS such as the UK and Germany and others who are backing the Peshmerga forces - publicly condemn all such violations of international humanitarian law,” she said.
“They must also ensure that any assistance they are providing to the KRG is not fuelling such abuses.”