Militias 'disappeared' hundreds from Fallujah town, says MP

An Iraqi MP has on Sunday accused federal police forces and Shia militias of forcibly disappearing around 650 people from the town of al-Karma in Fallujah.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

12 June, 2016

Militias have reportedly carried out human rights abuses in Fallujah [Getty]

An Iraqi MP on Sunday accused Iraqi federal police forces and the Shia-led Popular Mobilisation militias of disappearing more than 650 people from the town of al-Karma in Fallujah.

Hamid al-Mutlaq, parliamentary security committee member, said in a press statement that 650 people disappeared, forty of whom were killed at the hands of members of the federal police and militias.

Mutlaq called for the international community to put an end to violations against civilians in the battle of Fallujah.

He called on the Secretary-General of the UN and international organisations to intervene to stop the what he described as "atrocities" and urged Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to assign the task of entering Fallujah to the military, and not militias and federal police.

Meanwhile, Abdul Karim Talib, an MP for the National Coalition, called on authorities to save Fallujah's civilians without separating youths from their families.

"It is imperative for security and military authorities to distinguish between civilians and the enemy and to open safe corridors and evacuate civilians who a experiencing great suffering in the city of Fallujah".


	[Click to enlarge]

He stressed the need to unify the military efforts and not attack civilians who had been trapped in Fallujah with no way to escape.

The Iraqi army said on Sunday it had secured the first safe exit route for civilians to leave Fallujah, and a Norwegian aid group said thousands of people had already used it to flee in the first day it was open.

In response to the allegations of human rights abuses against civilians carried out by militias and the Iraqi Army, Human Rights Watch said the Fallujah campaign was "a test for the government's ability to hold abusive forces accountable."

"The Iraqi government needs to control and hold accountable its own forces if it hopes to claim the moral upper hand in its fight against ISIS," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director, using another acronym for Islamic State.

"It's high time for Iraqi authorities to unravel the web of culpability underlying the government forces' repeated outrages against civilians."