GENEVA -The United Nations human rights office on Thursday in Geneva called on International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Islamic State (IS) genocide and war crimes.
The office said this is in response to testimonies by no fewer than 100 alleged victims and witnesses, who claimed that IS fighters committed genocide against the minority Yazidi community in Iraq.
It said it launched its inquiry in September after the IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL, seized large swathes of northern Iraq.
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The UN office said in a report that the militants also committed crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilians, including children.
The human rights office urged the Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the prosecution of perpetrators.
It said the report also indicated that Iraqi government forces and affiliated militias “may have committed some war crimes” while battling the insurgency.
The UN office said there was a “manifest pattern of attacks” by IS on Yazidis as well as Christians and other minorities as it laid siege to towns and villages in Iraq.
It said the investigators also cited allegations that IS militants had used chlorine gas, a prohibited chemical weapon, against Iraqi soldiers in the western province of Anbar in September.
“Captured women and children were treated as “spoils of war”, and often subjected to rape or sexual slavery, it said.
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It said ISIL’s Islamic Sharia Courts in Mosul had also meted out cruel punishments, including stoning and amputation.
“Thirteen teenage boys were sentenced to death for watching a football match,” it said.(Reters/NAN)