A total of 68 protesters have been kidnapped by unknown actors due to their involvement in anti-government protests that began to grip the south and centre of the country on October 1, according to a statement from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR).
“The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights announces that 56 protesters and activists have been kidnapped and are still missing,” the statement reads. “Twelve protesters and activists have been kidnapped, but were released later.”
Protesters and activists have previously described campaigns of surveillance, intimidation and abduction by both government forces and unidentified actors since protests began.
Though most victims of violence have been male protesters and activists, women, who have been on the frontlines of the protests, have also been subject to disappearances.
Zahraa Ali al-Qaraloosi, a 19-year-old activist from Baghdad was kidnapped on December 2 while heading home from Tahrir Square. Her dead body was found near her house several hours later.
Mari Mohammed was kidnapped last month by unknown armed groups in Baghdad as she headed home from Tahrir Square, where she had been treating the injured.
Saba al-Mahdawi, 36, was also kidnapped by masked men on her way home from Tahrir Square last month. She was freed a week later. She was blindfolded throughout her abduction, her family told Human Rights Watch.
Among those blamed for kidnappings and disappearances are factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi), who are well armed and act with little or no state oversight – despite government measures to reel the group in by integrating them into Iraq’s official security apparatus.
By November, Amnesty International reported PMF involvement in at least one abduction - that of a lawyer in the south of the country.
Acts of violence by unidentified or masked groups extend beyond disappearances, and include protest massacres. They have contributed to a death toll of over 500 protesters and security force members, according to the UN special envoy to Iraq, with at least 17,000 people wounded since October 1.
Government officials confronted on protester killings, kidnaps and disappearances have also responded by blaming ‘third parties.’
Despite repeated announcements of investigations into violence against protesters, the Iraqi government has failed to identify perpetrators, and no arrests have been made.
