Former ISIS suspects stuck in Kurdistan camps are not forced to stay: KRG

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Dozens of Sunni Arab men who served prison time for affiliation with the Islamic State group (ISIS) or were acquitted, continue to be punished as they are stuck in limbo in the Kurdistan Region, Human Rights Watch stated on Thursday. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said the men are not forced to stay, but do not leave because of unfavourable conditions in their home areas.

“The men are currently stuck in a camp in the Kurdistan region, after being released from prison between 2018 and 2020. Security forces are not allowing them to leave the camp to live elsewhere in the Kurdistan region, and they fear for their lives if they were to return home,” Human Rights Watch stated.

“These men, most of them boys back when ISIS was in control of their areas, have been and continue to be punished, even though many were victims as child soldiers,” said Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “After years of suffering they are still in limbo with no hope for the future.”

ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, displacing millions of people and subjecting many more to their brutal reign. The group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Erbil and Baghdad have detained thousands of ISIS suspects.

According to Dindar Zebari, KRG’s coordinator for international advocacy, 398 ISIS detainees have been tried and sentenced in the Kurdistan Region and 48 were found not guilty and released. The KRG has also handed over 853 ISIS suspects to Iraqi courts.

Human Rights Watch said the state of limbo for the men who were released in the Kurdistan Region “stems from a lack of coordination and recognition between the separate judicial systems of the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraq’s Baghdad government, as well as the near-total impunity with which armed groups operating in the men’s home communities arbitrarily detain and even kill those suspected of ISIS affiliation.”

Earlier this year, a Shiite militia commander called for the forced displacement of civilians from Sunni areas north of Baghdad and in Diyala province to cut off local support for ISIS in these regions that have been a hotbed of terror activity.

Many displaced Sunnis are reluctant to return to their homes because of continuing violence, lack of reconstruction, little in the way of basic services, and accusations that they support ISIS. Some who voluntarily left the camps to salvage their homes and livelihoods have been forced to return to the camps, unable to piece together the basics.

Related: ‘Neither heaven nor hell’: Iraqi IDPs live in purgatory at Hassan Sham camp

Zebari said that the KRG does not force anyone to stay. “It's worth noting that while the majority of displaced people want to return to their original and liberated places, majority of these displaced people are currently unable to do so due to a lack of adequate conditions, such as basic life services, job opportunities, and security,” he said in an email to Rudaw English on Thursday evening.

“No acquitted ISIL [ISIS] militant has been forced to dwell inside the Kurdistan Region camps,” he added. “The regional government supports a voluntary and dignified return of these individuals without them serving a second sentence, passing through cumbersome investigations, or being a target of social criticisms in their places of origin.”

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