ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Human Rights Watch Senior Iraq Researcher Belkis Wille has issued dire warnings about the extent of unchecked state violence against Iraqi protesters.
In a televised interview with Rudaw and in an article published on the Human Rights Watch website on Wednesday, Wille described a rising trend of violence and kidnappings perpetrated against Iraqi citizens since anti-government protests began on October 1.
In the interview, she cited an Iraqi Ministry of Health spokesperson who stated on Tuesday that 511 people have been killed in the context of the protests.
Speaking to Rudaw, she said, “Unfortunately, Iraqi security forces continue to use excessive force against protesters…and we’ve seen security forces targeting protesters in other ways, including by arresting them, arbitrarily detaining them and of course we’ve seen attacks on [people] like medical workers, who are trying to help the protesters that are wounded.”
She identified different forces as being involved in the killing of protesters, including Iraqi anti-riot police in Baghdad and Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), known locally as Hashd al-Shaabi, in southern cities such as Najaf, Karbalah and Nasriyah.
Wille pointed out that it was difficult to determine which forces were responsible for killing protesters, explaining, “A big problem remains that a lot of these forces are wearing black uniforms with no badges, which allows them to remain unidentified.”
Regarding the brutality of the PMF in repressing protests throughout southern Iraq, Wille placed blame on the Iraqi prime minister, stating that the PMF are “under the command and control of the prime minister, and that is a formal legal position since October of 2016.”
While it is true that Iraqi parliament passed a law in 2016 decreeing that the PMF forces be integrated with the Iraqi military, efforts to implement the law are still ongoing. Observers inside and outside Iraq still perceive the PMF command structure as culminating with Iranian rather than Iraqi leadership.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi resigned in the face of intense pressure from protesters earlier this month.
Wille went on to criticize the Iraqi government for failing to investigate the repeated use of excessive force against protesters, calling on the Iraqi justice system to prosecute those responsible for killing protesters.
In her article on the Human Rights Watch website, she stated, “The Iraqi government needs to start protecting its citizens, by ending its own security force’s unlawful violence against protesters, and taking effective action against the groups now attacking them.”
Protesters have been killed in a number of brutal attacks, including one last week that left more than 17 dead in Khilani Square, central Baghdad.
Hundreds of protesters have been killed and more than 15,000 have been wounded since protests began. Human Rights Watch has also reported the arrest and abduction of numerous protesters.
Beyond her criticism of the Iraqi government for failing to stop the killings, Wille criticized the international community and in particular the international media for failing to pay attention to the mounting death toll of peaceful protesters.
She said, “I think, unfortunately, the international community and the international media generally do not focus enough on coverage of abuses in Iraq…international journalists have told me, unfortunately, the deaths of Iraqis in Iraq is not news.”
“I really am hoping that the international media will better cover the protests, because the death toll is so incredibly high and the abuses on the streets are so horrific.”
