ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Following a week of deadly bombings in Iraq that claimed the lives of hundreds of people, the United Nations human rights commissioner says that Iraqi authorities must do more to protect civilians and stop ‘uncontrolled militias’ from committing acts of revenge in response to such attacks. “I utterly condemn this latest horrendous ISIL atrocity, targeting innocent civilians who were celebrating Ramadan in the heart of Baghdad,” said the UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. “Along with other recent abominations associated with ISIL in Dhaka, Istanbul and Orlando, the sheer unrestrained viciousness of these people defies belief.” “Acts of revenge and hasty, injudicious policy decisions in reaction to such attacks are simply helping ISIL carry out its strategy to divide societies and promote hatred.” Al Hussein added in a statement published on OHCHR website. The UN high commissioner warns that Iraqi security authorities must not play into ISIS hands in their reaction to the rise in bombings and acts of violence in recent week. “ISIL needs to be defeated, and defeated soon,” Al Hussein said. “But in trying to defeat them, we must be extra careful not to react to their provocations in the way they predict we will react and want us to react. We need not just to be stronger than they are, but cleverer than they are. And in this we are failing badly, not just in Iraq but in a variety of responses all over the world, enabling them to tap into resentments about heavy-handed or unlawful responses to recruit more followers, create more fanatics and suicide bombers.” A massive bomb attack on a busy market in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood last week killed more than 292 people while an ISIS militant attack on a Shiite shrine in the town of Balad north of the capital a few days later killed 35 people and wounded many others. The UN human rights commissioner believes that with ISIS on the run in parts of the country as a result of recent successful Iraqi army operations, the group may resort to more such violent acts. “After the loss of Ramadi and Fallujah, with Mosul likely to be the next big battleground, I fear we will see more of these atrocities by ISIL, as they seek to make Iraq implode once more. The way we react, in Iraq and elsewhere, will in many ways decide whether ISIL benefits from its indiscriminate acts of mass murder, or is ultimately destroyed by them,” said Al Hussein. The UN human rights chief warns that the actions of Shiite militia groups against civilians in liberated areas would complicate the war against ISIS and give the extremist group a propaganda victory. Al Hussein highlights the case of hundreds of men and boys who were separated from their families by militiamen as they fled their homes during the Fallujah offensive last month and whose fate remains unknown. “The fate of the larger group is unknown, which is intensely worrying, particularly given the references made to revenge for the Camp Speicher massacre,” his statement read. “There is a list of the names of 643 missing men and boys, as well as of 49 others believed to have been summarily executed or tortured to death while in the initial custody of Kataaib Hezbollah. Tribal leaders believe there are around 200 more unaccounted for, whose names have not yet been collected. “These crimes are not only abhorrent,” Al Hussein concludes. “They are also wholly counterproductive. They give ISIL a propaganda victory, and push people into their arms. They increase the likelihood of a renewed cycle of full-throttle sectarian violence. The Prime Minister of Iraq has set up an investigation committee into the disappearances, which I obviously support. But I believe the authorities have to take strong and immediate action to locate the missing men or ascertain precisely what happened to them.
