Kurdistan responds to a Human Rights Watch report

ARK News.. The Kurdistan Regional Government, on Monday, responded to a report by Human Rights Watch, on preventing a number of Arab villagers from returning to their areas within the borders of Nineveh Governorate (its center of Mosul) after its liberation from ISIS.

The organization has accused the Kurdistan Region authorities of "preventing" about 1,200 Arab families from returning to their homes in five villages, Jadriya, Mahmuodiya, Cairo, Swedish and Sufia in Rabia district, west of Nineveh governorate, while allowing the Kurdish population to return.

The coordinator of the international recommendations in the Kurdistan Regional Government, Dindar Zibari, said in response to the report, that "after the ISIS terrorist group took control of some areas in the Mosul Governorate, the residents of these areas were forced to move to the Kurdistan Region and were received by the regional authorities without discrimination and providing all the services available to them ".

Adding that "Some of these villages are in the seam line and the residents of these villages have not been able to return to their areas due to the battles and military operations."

In his response, Zibari said, "Some residents of these five villages cooperated with ISIS and had a role in ISIS crimes. After liberating these areas, they went to the city center of Mosul and to Syria," noting that "the Cairo village, for example, had 37 families that had an affair with ISIS and some among them, they committed crimes and suicide operations against the Peshmerga and security forces. "

Adding "the Sofia village, more than 20 families had ties to ISIS, including the Nawaf Barjash Al-Shummari family, who was the economy minister of ISIS.

He continued, "About 70 families from the Swedish village had ties to ISIS and were leading the battles against the Peshmerga or providing information to the organization. The village of Mahmuodiya had more than 80 families who had ties to ISIS and most of them were suicide bombers."

The residents of the village of Sheikhan received ISIS elements when they entered the area and they had a major role in blocking the road between Duhok Governorate and Zammar district, and they were the cause of the martyrdom of a number of Peshmerga fighters, according to the report.

The coordinator of the international recommendations in the Kurdistan Regional Government, Dindar Zibari, said that the residents of these villages themselves were against the return of the families associated with ISIS and said that their return would destabilize the region and they called on the coalition forces to prevent the return of all those linked to ISIS.

"The presence of ISIS sleeper cells and a number of different military groups, as well as the attacks that are taking place by regional states, all of this have destabilized the region," Zibari said.

He explained, that despite the preventive measures taken by the Kurdistan Region authorities due to the Corona pandemic, there are ongoing initiatives and contacts between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad to improve joint security mechanisms in the region and facilitate return operations.

Source: BasNews

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