ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi environmental activists are facing threats, harassment, and retaliation from government officials and non-state armed actors, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, a week after a leading environmentalist was released after being kidnapped for two weeks. Prominent Iraqi activist Jassim al-Assadi, a campaigner for the preservation of Iraq’s threatened marshlands, was released on February 16 after being abducted on February 1 by plainclothes armed men while driving to the capital Baghdad on the main highway from the south. In a TV interview following his release, Assadi revealed he was subjected to the “most severe forms of torture” using “electricity and sticks” and was transported through various places during his 15 days in captivity. “Rather than taking decisive steps to solve Iraq’s critical environmental issues, Iraqi authorities are instead attacking the messenger,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at HRW. “Decimating the country’s environmental movement will only worsen Iraq’s capacity to address environmental crises that affect a range of critical rights.” Despite Iraq gaining relative stability in recent years following decades of bloody conflict and civil unrest, methods of silencing activists such as kidnappings and even assassinations remain common. “Iraqi authorities should immediately hold accountable those responsible for extrajudicial punishments such as kidnapping, stop using the justice system to harass and retaliate against environmental activists, and drop all abusive legal cases against them,” the US-based rights organization said. Assadi’s brother Nadhim told Rudaw English on February 5 that the gunmen abducted Assadi and forced him into one of their vehicles before driving away with him to an unknown location while leaving his cousin tied up inside the car. He called the kidnapping “carefully” designed but refused to name any parties that he suspected of being behind the incident. “We do not have any specific party that we can accuse. All we know is that they are, definitely, a non-governmental armed group, as it is apparent from the kidnapping method,” Nadhim said. Assadi is the founder of Nature Iraq, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) accredited environmental group that works to preserve Iraq’s endangered marshes “and the rich cultural heritage it nourishes.” “Although the Iraqi government appears to have taken steps to intervene and secure al-Asadi’s release, in other cases Iraqi authorities themselves have been responsible for retaliation against environmental activists in response to their efforts to draw attention to human rights breaches linked to the country’s environment and climate,” HRW added. Iraq’s troubled-yet-famed marshlands, also known as the Mesopotamian Marshes, were subjected to a massive drainage campaign by former dictator Saddam Hussein in 1991, who ordered their drainage as punishment for local communities who were protecting insurgents he sought to hunt down. The marshes were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2016 due to their biodiversity and ancient history. The devastation on the marshes is compounded by Turkish and Iranian damming upstream of rivers that flow into Iraq, cutting off the drought-ridden nation from much-needed water relief. Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the UN. “The Iraqi government’s muzzling of environmentalists who are trying to raise awareness around the country’s grave challenges is part of a broader attitude that sees civil society groups as threats rather than partners,” Coogle said.
