A United Nations mission formed to help Iraq investigate accusations that the ISIS terrorist organization committed genocide and war crimes was forced to end its work early before completing the investigations after its relationship with the Iraqi government became strained, according to Reuters.
The cancellation of the work of the mission, which was formed in 2017, comes nearly ten years after the terrorist organization invaded throughout Syria and Iraq, and at a time when many of the organization’s victims are still displaced in camps and yearn for justice.
“Is the work done?” Christian Richter, head of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS (UNITAD), told Reuters in an interview. “Not yet, that is quite clear.”
He added, “We need more time… If we set a deadline of September 2024, we will not have completed the investigations,” nor will we have completed other projects, such as creating a central archive of millions of pieces of evidence.
Critics of Iraq’s decision to end the mission’s work say that this will hinder efforts to hold more members of the ISIS terrorist organization accountable after the UNITAD team contributed to at least three convictions on charges of genocide and other international crimes in Germany and Portugal.
They also say that this casts doubt on the extent of Iraq’s commitment to holding members of the organization accountable for such crimes at home.
Farhad Alaeddin, advisor to the Prime Minister for Foreign Relations, told Reuters that there was no longer a need for the investigation team from Baghdad’s perspective, and that it had not successfully cooperated with the Iraqi authorities.
He added that the mission had not responded to repeated requests to share evidence and must do so now before ending its work.
