UN mission probing ISIS crimes in Iraq forced to shut down early

A United Nations mission set up to help Iraq investigate alleged Islamic State genocide and war crimes is being forced to shut down prematurely before it can finish its probes, following a souring of its relationship with the Iraqi government.

The removal of the UN mission set up in 2017 comes nearly a decade after the extremist group rampaged across Syria and Iraq and at a time when many of the Islamic State’s victims still live displaced in camps and long for justice.

“Is the work done? Not yet, this is pretty clear,” Christian Ritscher, head of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD), told Reuters in an interview.

From Iraq’s perspective, UNITAD was no longer needed and had not successfully cooperated with Iraqi authorities, Farhad Alaaldin, foreign affairs adviser to the prime minister, told Reuters.

“In our view, the mission has ended and we appreciate the work that has been done and it’s time to move on,” he said, noting the mission “didn’t respond to repeated requests for sharing evidence” and must now do so before it ends.

UNITAD was set up to help Iraq hold IS members accountable for international crimes – genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – but Iraq has not passed legislation for that to happen in-country, leaving UNITAD “in a waiting position,” Ritscher said.

Additionally, UNITAD was reluctant to share evidence it gathered with Iraqi authorities because of Iraq’s use of the death penalty, which goes against UN policy, according to six people familiar with the mission’s work.

These factors put UNITAD in the awkward position of gathering evidence, including hundreds of witness testimonies, in Iraq but mainly using that evidence in legal processes abroad, in a mismatch that festered for years.