Iraqi families fear reprisals against relatives forced to help ISIS

by Dramelin 5:00 AM 0 comments

IRBIL, Iraq — As Iraqi forces near the liberation of Mosul from the Islamic State, thousands of families fear reprisals against relatives forced to serve on behalf of the militants.
USA TODAY spoke to several families who admitted that their husbands or sons were trained by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, because of desperation or coercion.
Asia Khalaf, who stays with her two children in the Jeddah refugee camp about 60 miles southwest of here, said her now-arrested husband joined ISIS because he could not earn any money as a carpenter after the militants arrived.
"Our children were often hungry," Khalaf said.
Her husband trained with ISIS for a month, but the militants rarely gave him anything to do.
"He mostly sat at home doing nothing," Khalaf said.
He was arrested in February by Iraqi militias after the family escaped from their village.
Wafa Abdullah, who is also in the Jeddah camp, said her teenage son was "brainwashed" by ISIS and then received training, though she swore he was not involved in any violent actions and eventually left ISIS to hide with different relatives.
He is now under arrest by the Iraqi army.
Tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped in western Mosul, the last major stronghold in Iraq for ISIS, which stormed the country in 2014.
Many residents who managed to flee said the militants use civilians as human shields and threaten torture or death for anyone who defies their orders.
Even so, calls are mounting for harsh punishment or forced displacement for family members with alleged or confirmed ties to the militant group, whether their cooperation was voluntary or coerced.
Some Iraqis cite tribal law, in which families share a relative`s guilt.
"Even women and children of terrorists should be killed, or ISIS will come back," said Wathban Rammah, head of the council of reunification of Mosul tribes.
 "We need to fully destroy ISIS and their families — the tribes should act on this.
" Nazhan Sakhar, leader of a south Mosul militia group, said only families that executed or surrendered their terrorist sons should be welcome.
Others should be banished or confined to restricted areas.
Opponents of this policy caution against guilt by association and point to evidence that innocent Iraqis have been arrested and interrogated as suspected militants.
"The conflict will not settle if everyone continues to hope that one day he will catch his enemy and get revenge," said Saieb Gailani, a former deputy minister of health and public policy adviser to the Iraqi Parliament.
"If there is more aggressive action, civilians will be paying the price.
" Some may already be paying a price, according to media reports that Iraq`s elite police forces tortured and killed civilians after forcing them to confess to being ISIS members.
Iraqi law only penalizes people directly responsible for a crime.
But by tribal law, the penalty could mean extrajudicial punishment or banishment from a certain area for many generations.
In the case of ISIS relatives, this guilt by association can apply to families "who eat from the same plate" or entire tribes, regardless of how the militant`s relatives felt about their actions.
"In some small towns, the tribes are preventing other tribes from returning because some of their members were with ISIS," Gailani said.
Haider Ibrahimi, executive director of Sanad, a community reconciliation organization, said some politicians are pushing to enshrine these tribal traditions into national law.
 "It would be a disaster," Ibrahimi said.
"It will cause massive displacement, and the government will not have capacity to deal with it.
" Few ISIS suspects have been through a full court procedure, but thousands are in pretrial detention.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups said the hunt for ISIS suspects is imperfect and snares many innocent people.
 Recently published video by an Iraqi photographer shows Iraq`s emergency response division torturing civilians and forcing them to confess.
Some were later executed.
The elite police division declined to comment.
Suspects are often whipped during interrogation without any proof of guilt, Nihad Pawod, a member of Iraqi army intelligence who also works with the National Security Service, told USA TODAY.
Mohammed Askar, a tribal militia officer in Mosul, said his group uses force in interrogations but did not give details.
Security forces rely on volunteers to pass along information about alleged suspects, but the informants can be wrong or purposely give false reports.
 A dozen families interviewed said male relatives have been falsely arrested by Iraqi or Kurdish forces because of malicious neighbors making incorrect accusations.
Ilham Tara said her husband was arrested despite never being with ISIS.
Tara, who is now in the Debaga refugee camp outside Irbil, about 50 miles east of Mosul, said she had a dispute with neighbors over water taps in their home in a nearby village and believes the neighbors "got their revenge.
" Mahmood Yasin, currently staying in the Jeddah camp, said he cannot return to his town outside Mosul because of rumors that some members of his extended family had joined ISIS.
He said the rumors are not true, but he still fears retribution by militias in the area.
"I can`t go home," he said.
"None of us can go.
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