ERBIL — United Nations Investigative Team to promote accountability for crimes committed by Da’esh / ISIL (UNITAD) is convinced that the crimes committed by the Islamic State (IS) against the Yezidis, constitute a genocide, the head of the organization said.
UNITAD Special Adviser Karim Asad Ahmad Khan briefed the UN Security Council on Monday about the latest findings by his special teams in Iraq.
He said UNITAD had established “clear and convincing evidence that a genocide was committed by ISIL against the Yazidi as a religious group”.
ISIL is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State or IS.
Evidence collected by the team had also confirmed that IS was responsible for acts of extermination, murder, rape, torture, enslavement, persecution and other war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Yezidis.
Khan also briefed the council on the findings related to mass executions of predominantly Shia unarmed air cadets and personnel from Tikrit Air Academy, also known as Camp Speicher, as well as other outstanding IS crimes in Iraq.
He underlined that the rapid expansion of UNITAD evidence holdings, combined with the use of advanced technology including artificial intelligence tools to analyse information collected, had allowed for significant progress in the implementation of the mandate of the team. Exploitation of IS laptops and mobile phones had allowed for extensive analysis of internal IS administration documents, allowing the team to compile timelines of activity in relation to key persons of interest.
Looking ahead, Special Adviser Khan noted that the progress made in the work of UNITAD to date had set a path for the prosecution of ISIL members for international crimes in Iraq, highlighting that his report laid out a timeframe that would allow for trials against ISIL members to commence next year.