BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq’s interior ministry has formed a committee to investigate “cases of human rights violations in Nineveh by the rapid reaction forces,” days after a renowned Kurdish photographer from Khanaqin published photos in a prominent German magazine along with his witness testimony of alleged torture, rape and murders during the Mosul offensive.
“Ministry official Brigadier General Saad Maan ordered the formation of an investigative committee to investigate the veracity of the news report reported by German magazine Der Speigel and the content of information indicating the existence of cases of human rights violations in Ninveh by the rapid reaction forces,” Iraq’s Interior Ministry announced in a statement on Wednesday.
The investigators have been instructed to be “clear and honest” by Minister Qasim al-Araji.
"We are seriously following up on that and it is not rumors for media, but if we receive information and even they are not really reliable, we will immediately start investigations and follow-ups," PM Haider al-Abadi told Rudaw.
"We will not allow such violations. If these violations are done on an individual level we will investigate in order to prevent it from spreading," he added. "You know if there are violations and not any investigations, this paves the way for others to do similar things, therefore we have precise investigations.”
The US Special Envoy to the global coalition to defeat ISIS tweeted on Tuesday that “Iraqi forces have bravely placed civilian protection as a top priority throughout the Mosul campaign at great risk to their own personnel.”
Individuals or units failing to uphold that standard do a disservice to their sacrifice and must be investigated & held accountable. 2/2
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) May 23, 2017
“Individuals or units failing to uphold that standard do a disservice to their sacrifice and must be investigated and held accountable,” Brett McGurk added.
Earlier this week Der Spiegel published photos and a personal account of Ali Arkady, a photographer and documentarian from Khanaqin, who was embedded with Iraq’s Emergency Response Division (ERD) in Mosul, but also covered forces from the Golden Division.
Arkady says he began a project in October 2016 accompanying ERD forces to document their struggle against ISIS. Arkady says he had met two members — one Shiite, one Sunni — of the unit previously during the liberation of Fallujah, who agreed to be the “heroes” of his story.
“Even then, they were talking about killing people. But then I thought they were joking,” Arkady wrote.
Arkady explains that he was embedded at ERD headquarters in Kajara south of Mosul “not far from a US base.”
Arkady wrote that on October 22 one of the ERD fighters arrived with two young prisoners “presumed IS supporters.” Arkady claims he was later told they had been tortured for three days and then after a week were killed.
The photos, Arkady says, were taken shortly after they arrived at the facility.
One photo shows a bearded man in a blindfold with black hair with his arms tied behind his back. He appears to be hanging by his wrists with a pack of water bottles placed in the small of this back for extra weight.
A similar photo shows a man suspended by his hands in a similar manner. His neck tied to his feet making it impossible to straighten his back.
Arkady says he was surprised that he was permitted to continue filming.
“No one stopped me,” he wrote.
Arkady says there were foreign journalists in the area near Hamam al-Alil, but they would leave at night to return to Erbil when the alleged abuses took place.
In December the unit moved to a new base in Baswaja on the edge of eastern Mosul.
Arkady recalls two young brothers being brought to the compound at night.
His tightly-cropped photo shows an unidentified man holding a knife to a man who is pressed to the ground with the point of a blade being held just behind his ears.
Arkady says he was told by a soldier that the two had been “tortured to death” during the night, and he was shown a video of their videos via WhatsApp.
On December 16, Arkady says the unit received information about an ISIS informant. Arkady recalls the man being dragged out, while one the Iraqi fighters he was with “announced that he was going to rape the woman.”
In one photo Arkady says was taken that night a woman is clutching a baby in a room as someone opens the door. She appears to be crying out and pointing at the person opening the door.
Arkady claims that the abuse wasn’t only directed at ISIS fighters and informants; Sunni members of the unit also raped Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary fighters.
Arkady works for a US-based photo agency, and said he was surprised when he was asked to participate in the beatings.
“I come from Khanaqin, a small city in the north-east of Iraq, where the Kurdish and Arabic parts meet. With us, it was always normal that Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Arabs live side by side and together,” Arkady wrote.
He wrote that shortly after he went back to Khanaqin to get his wife and daughter, and then fled from Iraq.
“It is not easy to start a new life somewhere else,” he wrote. “Khanaqin is my home, I loved living there. But this is the price for my work, for, to publish what I've seen. It's my price, I pay it.”
Arkady says he has been threatened because of his work.
Arkady has been doing photojournalism in Iraq since 2006. One of his recent project is a Facebook page called Happy Baghdad with produced videos. The last was posted in November.
Since 2011, Arkady’s work has been published by Der Spiegel, which wrote “There is no doubt about the authenticity of his material and the identity of the perpetrators.”
