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(Erbil) Iraqi government-allied troops arbitrarily detained at least 100 men in late April 2017, in some cases torturing them during interrogations, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch interviewed three men from al-Hadar, a village 90 kilometers southwest of west Mosul, who were detained by the Popular Mobilization Forces (known as the PMF or Hashd al-Sha'abi) and two local officials who had knowledge of the detention operations in the area. The men said the fighters detained them as they fled their homes because of the fighting, and held them for up to 15 days in a school building and in one case a home in an area solely under PMF control. Their captors interrogated them about possible Islamic State (also known as ISIS) links, and in two cases beat them with thick metal cables, before releasing them and a small number of other detainees. Other detainees told them they had also been beaten during interrogations.

Given the previous track records of PMF abuse in the area of screening and detaining local men, Baghdad should treat these findings with the gravest concern, saidLama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Authorities should do all in their power to ensure that families fleeing the fighting around Mosul are able to get to safety, not tortured in secret facilities.

Human Rights Watch heard similar accounts from other men fleeing the fighting earlier in 2017 and raised the issue with the government, but the detentions and abuse seem to have continued. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi should issue a decree banning screening and detention by the PMF and hold those who have committed abuses accountable.

One man, Hassan, said that his family and a group of others fled al-Hadar, which was under ISIS control, on April 25, for a camp for displaced people run by the PMF. After two days there, he and 10 of his relatives were then taken to a building they said was a school and held there in a room, along with about 40 others from their village. His family group was interrogated for a week, then released.

Hassan and the other two men interviewed said that they were able to determine that they were being held in a school by speaking to fellow prisoners and guards, and by lifting their blindfolds. A government official from Tal Abta told Human Rights Watch that the PMF held the men in the Tal Abta Janubia primary school and provided the GPS coordinates. The official said that his office had documented the names of 100 men from the area who the PMF had detained as they fled, over the same period, based on calls from their families.

Ali Al-Ahmadi, director of al-Hadar district, told local media outlets on May 1, that the PMF had detained at least 160 people upon their arrival at camps for people displaced by the fighting. The same reports said that the governor of Mosul was calling for a high-level emergency session to discuss these detentions.

Earlier in the Mosul operation, Human Rights Watch documented cases of the PMF arbitrarily detaining, torturing, and executing civilians. Following a Human Rights Watch report, the PMF Commission issued a statement in early February denying that its forces had screened or detained anyone. The statement said the PMF hands over captured ISIS suspects to state security forces who have a mandate to screen suspects.

But in a meeting on February 6, a PMF Commission representative told Human Rights Watch that in limited circumstances they do detain people captured on the battlefield for at least short periods before transferring them to Iraqi authorities with a detention mandate. One man the PMF had detained for eight days and an aid worker confirmed that.

Iraqi authorities should only allow those with the requisite legal authority to screen people. The authorities should ensure that anyone detained is held in a recognized detention center accessible to independent monitors, and granted their due process rights under international and Iraqi law. All detention should be based on clear domestic law, and every detainee should be brought promptly before a judge to review the legality of their detention. Iraqi law requires authorities to take detainees before an investigative judge within 48 hours.

Human Rights Watch has also documented that Iraqi forces, including PMF forces, have used schools for security or military purposes such as for screening and as detention centers. Such use of schools can delay the re-opening of the schools to teach and provide other services to children, and damage classrooms and equipment. Iraqi forces should avoid using schools except as a last resort, when no other facilities are available.

The United Nations Convention against Torture, which Iraq ratified in 2011, obliges member countries to investigate and prosecute torture and to compensate victims.

While there may be grounds to detain some people fleeing the fighting who are suspected of criminal acts under ISISs rule, they have to be given their rights under Iraqi law, Fakih said. That includes the right not to be ill-treated.

Detainees Accounts

Hassan

Hassan said that on April 25, when the village of al-Hadar, where he lived, was still under ISIS control, his family and about 15 others managed to escape in several cars. The convoy spent two nights out in the desert just north of al-Hadar, before unidentified security forces arrived and told the families to go to Jarbua, a PMF-run camp for displaced people, 30 kilometers north of Tal Abta.

After they spent two nights at the camp, Hassan said, at around 9 p.m., a group of fighters with PMF badges rounded him up, along with 10 of his relatives, blindfolded them, then drove them to another location where they were held in a room of a large building. When he was able to, he said, he pulled down his blindfold quickly because his hands were bound in front and saw that he was in a room with about 40 other detainees, all from al-Hadar.

After seven days, guards released him and the other 10 men detained with him without explanation, he said. Throughout his detention, he said, the same guards moved him in and out of the room with the other detainees for interrogation, asking why he had remained living under ISIS, whether he had joined ISIS, and for names of ISIS fighters. Hassan said he was blindfolded throughout his captivity but said that he was held and interrogated by fighters with southern accents whom he thought were from the PMF.

Ahmed

Ahmed said that on the morning of April 26, as Iraqi forces began an operation to retake al-Hadar, more than 60 other families fled the area in cars. Six were families from al-Hadar and the rest were families previously displaced by the fighting, mostly from villages in Tal Abta district, just to the north, he said. When they were about six kilometers north of the village, they reached a base of a large number of fighters carrying flags identifying them as belonging to the PMF unit Ali al-AkbarBrigade (Liwa Ali al-Akbar), with fighters from southern Iraq.

The fighters made them wait for several hours, then checked the mens identity cards. By then it was evening, and the fighters told them it was too late to take them to the nearest camp, which they said was at least 40 kilometers away. They told the families to stay in their cars or erect tents, he said.

At midnight, Ahmed said, he was standing with five of his relatives, including his brother, by their cars when three Ali al-Akbar fighters with PMF badges approached them and said they needed the men to come with them so they could interview them about their area. Ahmed said that the PMF fighters blindfolded him and his relatives, drove them for about five minutes, and then held them in a school, where the fighters detained them for 10 days. His hands were bound in front, so he was able to slip off the blindfold on various occasions. Ali said he saw guards bringing in about 90 men, who told him they were from al-Hadar.

For four days, Ahmed said, guards with southern accents whom he thought were PMF interrogated him blindfolded in a separate room once each day, asking why he had joined Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and beating him for about 10 minutes each time with thick metal cables. Ahmed said that twice the guards held a plastic bag over his head until he lost consciousness. He said he insisted he had not joined any extremist group. After four days of abuse, he asked the 40 or so men held in a room with him if they had confessed and all said they had, to stop the abuse, Ahmed said. He said all his relatives told him the guards also beat them with thick metal cables.

The next morning, Ahmed said, he confessed to being affiliated with ISIS. Later that afternoon, he was again brought into a separate room and a man who sounded different from his interrogators asked if his confession was true, and he admitted it had not been.

While the PMF held them, he and the other two detainees said they were only given one cup of water and limited food every day. The guards moved Ahmed among three rooms. In two he estimates there were a total of another 40 detainees, with one room full of men he did not recognize as from al-Hadar, and about 50 from al-Hadar in the other. After the other man questioned him, Ahmed said, guards loaded him and 11 other men, including his brother and other relatives into cars and drove them to a house about two hours away, where they were held in the same room and interrogated separately for another two days. At that point, guards with the same southern accents as the Ali al-Akbarfighters brought in 20 to 30 men from al-Hadar whom Ahmed recognized as also having been held at the school. One said that PMF fighters had bused all 90 to the house together.

That night, guards with southern accents took him and 10 of the other men, including four of his relatives, to al-Hadar village and let them go. They eventually made their way to displaced camps in Jadah, 54 kilometers northwest, where they rejoined their families. As of May 17, he said, his brother was still in detention.

An official from the area working on the detainees release told Human Rights Watch that the house the PMF detained the men in was referred to as Yaseens house.

Kareem

Kareem said he fled al-Hadhra on April 26, with about 10 families to a nearby village. The next day, they drove 40 kilometers to a PMF checkpoint. Four PMF fighters with badges checked the mens identity cards. The fighters selected him and seven other men, blindfolded them, and bound their hands, then drove them to a nearby large building. Kareem said the building held many other prisoners but he was unable to count because he was afraid he would be caught if he lifted his blindfold.

He said he was held for 15 days and that guards interrogated him daily about ISIS affiliation and beat him with thick metal cables. An older man from his village held with him died from an illness that predated his detention. Kareem said he did not want to speak about what the guards had done to him, but he had visible bruising and scaring around his wrists and up his right arm when he spoke to Human Rights Watch, two days after he was released.

Excerpt from:
Iraq: Scores of Men Imprisoned in Schoolhouse - Human Rights Watch

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region Around 20,000 people from other parts of Iraq will flock to the capital of the Kurdistan Region on Monday night, as Erbil hosts Iraqs first internationally sanctioned football match since 2013.

We hope this match will be in line with both teams levels in terms of support by fans and performance by the players in order to present a positive message to the Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). I also call on the fans to come and show great support for their team, Air Force Club coach Basim Qassem told Rudaw.

Just 70 kilometers from war-torn Mosul, the sprawling metropolis of Erbil has been largely spared from the violence that engulfed much of Iraq, but getting fans from the two Baghdad-based clubs into the Kurdish capital poses a potential challenge with additional security screening.

FIFA, the worlds football governing body had banned Iraq from hosting international football matches for nearly four years due to the rise of ISIS and anti-ISIS efforts.

However, FIFA lifted the ban earlier this month and the AFC has agreed to allow the first match since 2013 to be hosted in the safety of Erbil.

FIFA is imposing a three-month trial period in the country to ensure that the country can organize and host football matches according to international standards.

Staff at Erbils Franso Hariri Stadium are preparing for upwards of 20,000 fans.Iraq's Ministry of Youth and Sports announced that it would cover travel expenses for 1,000 fans from each of the two clubs, which have hired buses to transport supporters to see the match.

According to the Kurdish union of hotels and restaurants there are nearly 4,000 guesthouses, eateries, and vacation sites in the Kurdistan Region which primarily earn their revenues through holidaymakers who had come in their thousands in the past. Many new hotels and holiday facilities were built over the past few years to attract more guests from south and central Iraq who often vacationed in the Kurdish norths cool temperatures in the summer months.

But the double shock of plummeting oil prices and the ISIS war hit the hotel industry hard as tourists increasingly chose to stay away.

I think the tide has turned in our favor now, Malawi Jabar, the Director of the Kurdistan Tourism Board previously told Rudaw. Most hotels and motels have already been booked ahead of this summers holiday season, which are great signs.

See more here:
Kurdistan Region hosts Iraq's first international sporting event - Rudaw

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Large sectors of Iraq received above average precipitation in April when compared to the monthly long-term average (LTA) of 2011-2016. However, below average rainfall amounts were observed in crop-growing governorates, including most areas of Dahuk, Kirkuk and Babil, as well as parts of Ninewa. Salah al-Din, Sulaymaniyah and Anbar. Precipitation levels in these areas were generally lower compared to the same month last year.

Harvesting of winter barley and wheat planted in November-December, generally occurs in late April-early May. The April ASI indicates increased greenness in cropland areas of the country with the exception of the major cereal-growing governorate of Ninewa and parts of Anbar. The impact of crop stress in the latter areas may be in fact less than expected as crops are already ripening, and close to harvesting. Reduced greenness could also be observed in parts of northern governorates, including Dahuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The ASI depicts signs of first harvesting in crop-growing areas of Babil and Bagdad as from the first dekad of April.

Please note that since the ASI is based on remotely sensed data only, there is no confirmation on what crops have been planted.

Read more here:
Agrometeorological Monitoring Bulletin in Iraq - April 2017 - ReliefWeb

Baghdad, 20 May 2017 After four months of cross-country meetings, the Iraq: Youth and Coexistence forum concluded with an overarching national conference in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad today, full of hope that recommendations drawn from deliberations involving hundreds of youth from Iraqs diverse areas will impact the political drive to achieve national reconciliation in the period after the defeat of the Daesh terrorists.

Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives H.E. Salim al-Jubouri and the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Abdel-Hussein al-Abtan, led a number of State officials, dignitaries and diplomats at the final conference today that capped the series of meetings, underlining the seriousness with which Iraqi institutions regard the crucial effort of national reconciliation, notably with the near defeat of the terrorist Daesh by the Iraqi security forces in Mosul.

In seven cities since January 2017, more than 750 participants activists, students, men and women in the age group of 18-35 - from the countrys governorates came together to debate, argue and, in some instances, vent their frustration about the current state of affairs in Iraq. Some 81 young men and 60 young women participated in todays conference, the eighth and final of the forums which included representatives of youth from the previous meetings in the cities of Basra, Erbil, Najaf, Baaqouba, Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and Baghdad which had drawn participants from all Iraqi governorates.

As at every stop, the goal was to give a voice to youth for their crucial role in charting the road to peaceful co-existence in a future Iraq. These fora gave the opportunity to Iraqis across different ethnic and sectarian backgrounds to deliberate post-conflict issues, engage on national reconciliation and voice their opinion. Participants adopted recommendations reflecting their hope for a better future, one of peace, tolerance and coexistence in which Iraqis can reap the benefits of security, prosperity and the rule of law.

The forum was organized by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in cooperation with the Iraqi Al-Amal Association. As in every stop of the forum, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, Mr. Gyrgy Busztin, underscored the importance of the views of the youth on their countrys future and the insistence of the United Nations of including the voice of the younger generation in the discussions on national reconciliation.

We have been moved by the in-depth national debate and vision of the youth and the reforms you have recommended during your forums, the DSRSG said in opening remarks at the forum today.

He further added: It is clear from your deliberations that you, the Iraqi youth, want to live in a country at peace and based on justice, free of manifestations of terrorism, sectarianism, political quotas and corruption, a country in which every citizen builds a future relying on personal effort and merit and far from sectarianism and nepotism.

Mr. Busztin stressed Iraqi youth constitute a formidable and harmonious force in the country and are capable of making a difference. You should not be burdened by the legacy of the past because you were not part of it, and you are not influenced by the sectarian or political divisions. This makes you the natural vanguard of both reform and reconciliation, and you are able to make them succeed, he added.

The youth have worked during the past forums on identifying the key issues that will be crucial to the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation among all Iraqis. Each of the forums adopted a set of recommendations and chose representatives to this national conference in Baghdad where these recommendations were finalized and incorporated into a set to be presented to the government.

Mr. Busztin said a delegation emerging from the conference today will convey the concluding recommendations to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi with the hope of including it in the decisions that support the national reconciliation effort.

In remarks at the closing of the conference, Mr. Busztin praised the youth participation which enriched the discussions on the future of Iraq, noting: You have done a great service to your country.

For more information, please contact: Mr. Samir Ghattas, Director of Public Information/SpokespersonUnited Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Phone: +964 790 193 1281, Email: ghattass@un.org or the UNAMI Public Information Office: unami-information@un.org

Read more here:
Iraq: Youth and Coexistence Forum Concludes with Recommendations from Iraq's Youth for post-Daesh National ... - ReliefWeb

Foreign trips for any president are an ego boost of the highest magnitude: red carpet arrival with bands playing music, troop reviews, and official dinners in your honor hosted in some of the most opulent palaces in the world. For President Trump, the stakes are high. With poll numbers at historic lows and controversies surrounding his presidency, Trump desperately needs to change the news narrative, at least for a few days. And what better way to do that than to embark on your first foreign trip as president.

The president can't get out of town fast enough. When Air Force One went wheels up from Joint Base Andrews on Friday, one can imagine the president felt a sense of relief as Washington quickly disappeared beneath him. Air Force One, at least for now, will be his safe zone.

When I recently asked a friend how he could log so many hours on Air Force One during the Clinton administration, he had an easy answer: the Lewinsky scandal! At a time when Clinton faced troubles at home, the best way to temporarily escape his troubles was to board the presidential aircraft and fly abroad.

But more than the comforts of Air Force One and the emotional shelter it provides to a president in turmoil, Trump will need to not only dominate the headlines over the next several days, he'll need to own them. And he can do that by making an unscheduled visit to Iraq.

From Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, it's a short flight. I know this because from 2008-2010, I traveled to Iraq 14 times as a civilian member of a special Department of Defense task force in charge of economic development and rebuilding as part of General David Petraeus' counter-insurgency strategy.

Foreign trips are always full of surprises, and this would certainly be one of them. Just last month, Trump sent his son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner to Iraq to meet with United States military officials and to receive an on-the-ground update on counter-Islamic State operations.

Middle East peace is one of Trump's loftier goals and an unscheduled visit to Iraq would benefit him greatly. Nothing speaks louder than a presidential visit to reaffirm U.S. commitment to the government of Iraq as well as the U.S. forces stationed there.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And nothing illustrates that better than Air Force One on the tarmac at Baghdad International Airport.

At a time when the president needs to change breaking news headlines, a visit to Iraq would do just that.

Mark Vargas (@MarkAVargas) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is co-founder and president of tech startup Licentiam. From 2007-2010, he served as a civilian within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. From 2008-2010 he traveled to Iraq 14 times.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read ourguidelines on submissions here.

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Why Trump must make a surprise visit to Iraq on his first foreign trip - Washington Examiner