MESOP NEWS ON THE HOUR : Kurdish Government Responds to HRW Report on Kurdistan / HRW accuses Kurdish security of discriminating Iraqi Arabs

Basnews – 26.02.2015 20:13 – ERBIL – Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has responded to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization, which accuses Kurdish security forces of abusing Arab civilians in northern Iraq. After the release of HRW report on Thursday, Kurdish government angrily rejected all the accusations and information that have been published in the report.

Dindar Zebari, assistant head of Kurdistan’s Department of Foreign Relations on Thursday told BasNews that KRG rejects all the information that have been published in the HRW report.

“We reject the accusation made against Kurdistan Security forces in the disputed regions and we will be holding a press conference to respond to those accusations,” said Zebari from Kurdish Capital Erbil. He said his government believes HRW has made mistakes by not double checking the information they published in the report. A report of Human Rights Watch (HRW) released on Thursday says the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) should lift all restrictions on Arab civilians in the disputed territories between the Kurds and Baghdad and investigate abuse of terrorist captives and alleged looting of Christian homes by Kurdish soldiers.

Local Kurds told Human Rights Watch that Iraqi Kurdish citizens or forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have destroyed dozens of Arab homes in the areas, which the KRG appears to be seeking to incorporate into Kurdish autonomous territory. Arab residents in one cordoned-off zone said that KRG forces detained 70 local Arab men for long periods without charge.

“Cordoning off Arab residents and refusing to let them return home appears to go well beyond a reasonable security response to the ISIS threat,” said Letta Tayler, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The US and other countries arming the Iraqi Kurdish forces should make clear that they won’t stand for discrimination under the guise of countering terrorism.”The HRW called on the KRG to carry out a prompt, impartial, and transparent investigation into all other potentially unlawful conduct in areas it controls and appropriately prosecute or discipline any officials, forces or individuals responsible. “While the KRG did the right thing in starting to ease these restrictions, it has further to go to curtail discrimination against Arabs,” Tayler said. “The atrocities committed by ISIS, no matter how unconscionable, can’t justify collective punishment of entire Arab communities.” The HRW also said the KRG should investigate whether their forces carried out the verbal and physical abuse of IS-prisoners seen in the videos posted on social media.According to HRW all countries that provide security assistance to Iraqi Kurdish forces “should make clear that the KRG could risk losing such aid if it does not investigate, end, and punish seriously abusive conduct.”

HRW raised it’s concern with the KRG in January. In a response to the HRW in February, the KRG denied any ethnic discrimination but pledged to investigate the HRW findings. In January, Kurdish military and intelligence forces eased several of the restrictions. Bas News reported that the Kurdish security agency has announced that displaced Arabs nolonger need sponsorship from Kurdish residents.

The KRG statement to HRW on 5 February said that the KRG have instructed security forces that “no one is above the law” and that all violators “will be held accountable.”But in December, Kurdish officials justified some restrictions on Arab civilians, pointing out that many Arabs have assisted the Islamic state (IS) advance and might again collaborate with the armed group, which is predominantly Sunni Arab. In October, the KRG denied Arab villages were destroyed pointing out that the IS rigged civilian houses with explosives and that the Peshmerga forces are following the conventions of Geneva in dealing with prisoners of war.