Kurdish forces tortured children in Iraq, Human Right Watch says

Iraqi forces in Mosul. Photo: AFP

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— An international human rights group says children are alleging they were tortured after being detained by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government on suspicion that they have connections to the Islamic State group.

Human Rights Watch estimates more than 180 boys under the age of 18 are currently being held and government officials have not informed their families where they are, increasing the likelihood the children could be disappeared, according to the report published Sunday.

As Iraqi security forces have retaken territory from IS over the past year and a half, they have also detained hundreds of men and boys. Many of those detained have likely suffered inhumane treatment or been tortured.

The HRW watch report said:

Seventeen children detained since July 2016 by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on suspicion of involvement with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, say that government security forces tortured or otherwise abused them in detention, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. They are among at least 183 boys the KRG has been holding on ISIS-related accusations, most, if not all, apparently without charge or access to a lawyer.

The children, ages 11 to 17, alleged that Asayish, the KRG’s security forces, held them in stress positions, burned them with cigarettes, punched and kicked them, beat them with plastic pipes and cables, and shocked them with electricity. None of the children had access to a lawyer during interrogation, and most had not been permitted to contact family members since their detention, in some cases for months. The legal basis for the detention of the children remained at best unclear, suggesting they were being detained arbitrarily.

“Legitimate security concerns do not give security forces license to beat, manhandle, or use electric shocks on children,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Many children escaping from ISIS are victims who need help, yet face further abuse by Asayish forces.”

The KRG should thoroughly investigate the allegations that children are being tortured and prosecute all security officials responsible.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited the Women and Children’s Reformatory in Erbil in early December and conducted private interviews with 19 terrorism suspects, all boys ages 11 to 17. Human Rights Watch asked to interview some of the children based on previous interviews with family members, and social workers brought others for interviews at random. Human Rights Watch researchers also interviewed family members of 17 detained children, including relatives of six of the children interviewed, and staff at the facility and independent experts on the KRG’s legal process and court procedures. Human Rights Watch has changed the names of the children and omitted certain details to protect them from potential retaliation.

Except for one Kurdish boy, all the children interviewed were Sunni Arabs from areas of Nineveh, Salah al-Din, or Kirkuk governorates that remain or were under ISIS control until late 2016. All said they were apprehended by Asayish or the KRG’s Peshmerga military forces between July and November, most from the Debaga camp for internally displaced people, 40 kilometers south of Erbil. All were held in Asayish custody in various locations for days or weeks before being transferred to the Erbil detention center, which is administered by the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry.

The 17 boys who alleged mistreatment said that it usually took place during interrogation sessions with Asayish before authorities transferred them to the detention center, or when Asayish members recalled them from the detention center for further interrogation.

Nine said they were given electric shocks. One of the younger boys said he “felt that my eyes were popping out” when an interrogator tortured him with “an electricity machine.”

A 14-year-old said that an Asayish officer at the General Security Directorate (also known as Asayish Gishti) started to pull his pants down and threatened to rape him if he did not confess an ISIS affiliation. Five children still had visible marks when Human Rights Watch researchers spoke with them, which they said were caused by cigarette burns or electric shocks during interrogation.

Two children told Human Rights Watch that they had contemplated suicide and heard other child detainees say they had as well. Some expressed fear that Asayish members would return to the detention center at any time to take them away.

Nearly all the children who alleged that Asayish members tortured them said that they ultimately made and fingerprinted confessions to stop the torture. Some said they freely admitted that they had worked with ISIS or received religious or weapons training from them, but they said the interrogators continued to press them to falsely confess to greater involvement, such as participation in battles or killing KRG Peshmerga forces. None knew the content of the confessions they fingerprinted – some were illiterate or blindfolded, and others said that they were not allowed to read them and could not have because they were written in Kurdish.

Read the Full report from HRW