Amnesty International condemns ISIL’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Iraq

Amnesty International has accused Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists of “systematic ethnic cleansing” and mass killings of minorities in northern Iraq, in a report published Tuesday. Citing “hair raising” accounts from survivors of massacres, the rights group said the jihadists committed “war crimes, including mass summary killings and abductions”. The Sunni radical ISIL has pressed a campaign of terror in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq, which it has declared an Islamic “caliphate,” carrying out decapitations, crucifixions and public stonings.

The massacres and abductions being carried out by the Islamic State provide harrowing new evidence that a wave of ethnic cleansing against minorities is sweeping across northern Iraq.

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser currently in northern Iraq

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has echoed Amnesty’s accusation of ISIL ethnic cleansing, calling them a “death cult”, comparing them to Nazis and saying “extreme force” is justified in battling them. Australia will in coming days join the United States in an international effort to transport weapons to Kurdish forces fighting ISIL extremists in northern Iraq. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the entire world community should be alarmed at what was happening and has given tacit support to plans to airlift arms to Kurdish forces.

Without addressing this issue through certain means, including some military and counterterrorist actions, we will just end up allowing these terrorist activities to continue.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

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