• Militias allied to the Iraqi government have access to arms from at least 16 countries
• Recent arms transfers have fuelled enforced disappearances, abductions, torture, summary killings, and deliberate destruction of civilian property
• Iraq is the world’s sixth-largest importer of heavy weaponry

Paramilitary militias nominally operating as part of the Iraqi armed forces in the fight against the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) are using arms from Iraqi military stockpiles, provided by the USA, Europe, Russia and Iran, to commit war crimes, revenge attacks and other atrocities said Amnesty International in a new report, Iraq: Turning a blind eye: The arming of the popular mobilization units.

Field research and detailed expert analysis of photographic and video evidence since June 2014 has found that these paramilitary militias have benefited from transfers of arms manufactured in at least 16 countries, which include tanks and artillery as well as a wide range of small arms.

The predominantly Shi’a militias have used those arms to facilitate the enforced disappearance and abduction of thousands of mainly Sunni men and boys, torture and extrajudicial executions as well as wanton destruction of property.

“International arms suppliers, including the USA, European countries, Russia and Iran, must wake up to the fact that all arms transfers to Iraq carry a real risk of ending up in the hands of militia groups with long histories of human rights violations,” said Patrick Wilcken, Researcher on Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

“Any state selling arms to Iraq has to show that there are strict measures in place to make sure the weapons will not be used by paramilitary militias to flagrantly violate rights. If they haven’t done that, no transfer should take place.”

The Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – comprised of as many as 40 or 50 distinct militias – were established in mid-2014 to aid in the fight against IS. In 2016, the PMU formally became part of the Iraqi armed forces, but have enjoyed government support since long before that.

The report focuses on four main militias that Amnesty International has documented committing serious human rights violations: Munathamat Badr (Badr Brigades or Badr Organization), ‘Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous), Kata’ib Hizbullah (Hizbullah Brigades) and the Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades).

Amnesty International’s research shows how PMU militias have grown in power and influence since 2014. They receive arms and salaries from the Iraqi authorities, and have increasingly gone into battle or controlled checkpoints together with Iraqi troops. Under this cloak of official approval, some PMUs have been documented carrying out revenge attacks mainly targeting Sunni Arabs, and nobody is holding them to account.

“The Iraqi authorities have helped to arm and equip the PMU militias and pay their salaries – they must stop turning a blind eye to this systematic pattern of serious human rights violations and war crimes.”

Patrick Wilcken, Researcher on Arms Control and Human Rights

“Any militiamen fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqi military must be thoroughly and rigorously vetted. Those suspected of committing serious violations must be removed from their ranks, pending judicial investigations and prosecutions. Unaccountable and unruly militias must be either truly brought into the fold and discipline of the armed forces, or disarmed and demobilized completely.”

The Iraqi authorities face tremendous security threats from IS, which continues to commit atrocities in areas under its control and to carry out deadly attacks on civilians elsewhere in Iraq. But measures responding to these threats must respect international human rights and humanitarian law.

Amnesty International is urging Iraq to immediately accede to the global Arms Trade Treaty, which has strict rules in place to stop arms transfers or diversion of arms that could fuel atrocities.

Systematic violations by PMU militias

The predominantly Shi’a PMU militias have used their arsenal of weapons to carry out or facilitate a systematic pattern of violations, seemingly as revenge in the wake of IS attacks. These include enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, as well as the torture of thousands of Sunni Arab men and boys.

A man from Muqdadiya told Amnesty International how his 22-year-old brother Amer was among 100 men and boys abducted from their homes in January 2016 when PMU militias went on the rampage in retaliation for a suicide attack on a Shi’a-owned café in the city. PMU fighters also burnt and destroyed Sunni mosques, shops and property.

“Many Sunnis were grabbed in the streets or dragged from their homes and instantly killed. In the first week of the events, militiamen drove around with speakers shouting for Sunni men to come out of their homes. On 13 January [2016], more than 100 men were taken and have not been seen since,” the man said.

Sunni men and boys have routinely been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment at checkpoints and detention facilities controlled by PMU militias.

In one case, a 20-year-old student told Amnesty International that, on 26 July 2016, he was fleeing fighting in Shargat when he was stopped at the Asmida checkpoint in Salah al-Din governorate. The forces controlling the checkpoint – a mix of men in civilian dress and others in military uniform, including some bearing PMU insignias – immediately blindfolded him and drove him away.

“I spent seven weeks under torture; they wanted me to confess to being Daesh [IS]. I was held with about 30 other people in a school… We were all beaten with metal rods and cables. They also used electric shocks… I was blindfolded through most of this time… After 22 days, they transferred all of us to Baghdad to a prison… There were other people there, some detained for over six months and their families did not know anything about them… I was also tortured there, and interrogated once while blindfolded…” He was eventually freed without charge.

The fate and whereabouts of thousands of other Sunni men and boys who were seized by PMU militias remain unknown. Hundreds of Sunni men and boys have been abducted at the al-Razzaza checkpoint crossing alone by the Hizbullah Brigades since October 2014.

“Cosmetic changes recognizing militias as part of the armed forces are not enough – the Iraqi authorities must urgently rein in paramilitary militias. Iraq’s international partners, including those who arm it, need to use their influence to press for this to happen.”

Patrick Wilcken

“Instead of unequivocally hailing militias as heroes fighting to put an end to IS atrocities, thereby emboldening them, the Iraqi authorities must stop turning a blind eye to systematic abuses that have fed sectarian tensions,” said Patrick Wilcken.

Arming the PMU

The PMU deploy more than 100 types of arms originally manufactured in at least 16 countries. These include heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery in addition to a wide range of small arms – an eclectic mix including standard-issue Kalashnikov and M-16 automatic rifles, machine guns, handguns and sniper rifles.

Since their establishment in mid-2014, the PMU have increasingly been supplied directly by the Iraqi authorities, from Iraqi military stocks. This includes a significant quantity of more recently manufactured NATO-pattern equipment, mainly from the USA, along with equipment from Russia and Eastern Europe.

More than 20 countries have supplied Iraq with arms and ammunition over the last five years, led by the USA, followed by Russia. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, arms exports to Iraq increased by 83% between the periods 2006–10 and 2011–15. As of 2015, Iraq was the sixth largest arms importer of heavy weapons in the world.

The Iraqi armed forces’ often haphazard and shoddy weapons tracking systems make it very difficult to trace where arms transfers go once they make it to Iraq. This, coupled with the fluid nature of the conflict, means that weapons frequently get captured or diverted to armed groups or militias currently active in both Iraq and Syria.

“The Iraqi authorities must put in place strict measures to ensure stockpiles of weapons are properly secured and monitored,” said Patrick Wilcken.

Iran’s role

The sheer breadth of Iraq’s arms suppliers has led to unintended consequences – for example, US armoured vehicles almost certainly intended for Iraqi forces have wound up in the hands of Kata’ib Hizbullah, a militia with ties to Iran that the US State Department has long classified as a “foreign terrorist organization”.

Iran remains a major military sponsor of the PMU militias – particularly those with close links to Iranian military and religious figures, such as the Badr Organization, ‘Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and the Hizbullah Brigades – all of which stand accused of serious human rights violations. These ongoing supplies are in breach of a 2015 UN resolution barring arms exports from Iran without prior approval from the UN Security Council.

“Iran’s provision of arms directly to the PMU risks rendering Iran complicit in war crimes. It should not allow transfers to any PMU militia groups while they remain outside the effective command and control of the Iraqi armed forces and unaccountable for abuses they commit,” said Patrick Wilcken.

In response to the United Nations General Assembly resolution establishing an independent international mechanism to ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria since March 2011, Anna Neistat, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research said:

“With this resolution, the General Assembly helps overcome the Security Council’s deadlock on accountability and is the first step towards justice for thousands of victims.

“The situation in Syria continued to be one of the most heart-breaking tragedies of our time. It is also a clear example of the failure of the broken international system that was established – with the Security Council at its centre — to prevent the atrocities that shock the conscience of humanity.

“By passing this resolution, the international community is standing up against the Security Council’s utter inability to act in the face of gruesome atrocities being committed before the eyes of the entire world. This is a crisis that, over five years, has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and caused unimaginable suffering to the people of Syria.”

“The overwhelming support for the resolution by UN member states sends a strong message to all parties to the conflict in Syria that war crimes and crimes against humanity will not be tolerated. Perpetrators will be held accountable. Impunity is not an option.

“It is now imperative that we work to make sure this resolution is swiftly and fully implemented and that this mechanism is capable of leading to the prosecution of those individuals who are responsible for the crimes that have been taken place, and continue to take place in Syria.”

Saudi Arabia should immediately abandon all use of cluster munitions, destroy its stockpile and accede to the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, Amnesty International said after the Kingdom’s surprise admission today that it used the inherently indiscriminate weapon in Yemen.

General Ahmed al-Asiri, the spokesperson for the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition, stated today that it would cease use of UK-made BL-755 cluster munitions, confirming Amnesty International’s finding that this type had been used since at least December 2015. Amnesty International previously revealed the coalition’s use of UK, US and Brazilian-made cluster munitions in the conflict.

“It’s astonishing that it has taken this long for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to formally admit that it used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict.”

James Lynch, Head of Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

“It’s astonishing that it has taken this long for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to formally admit that it used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict,” said James Lynch, Head of Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

“Of course we have already known this for months. Amnesty International and others gathered damning evidence of how these weapons were killing and maiming civilians, including children, in farming villages in northern Yemen following their use earlier this year.

“This episode highlights the urgent need for an independent international investigation to look into the mounting evidence of violations of international law in Yemen and ensure accountability.

“The irresponsible and unlawful flow of arms to parties to the Yemen conflict has fuelled civilian suffering.”

“The irresponsible and unlawful flow of arms to parties to the Yemen conflict has fuelled civilian suffering. All states must impose a comprehensive embargo on arms transfers that could be used by any of the warring parties.”

Background

Amnesty International and others have been calling on all states for years to immediately halt the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions and to join the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Neither Saudi Arabia nor any of its coalition members have joined the CCM. However, under customary international humanitarian law, coalition members must not use inherently indiscriminate weapons including cluster munitions, which invariably pose a threat to civilians.

Cluster munitions, which are banned by more than 100 countries, present an enormous danger to civilians. Dropped from the air or fired from the ground, they are designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the sub-munitions over a wide area in a way that cannot discriminate between civilians and military targets. Many of the sub-munitions fail to explode on impact and effectively become anti-personnel mines. Unexploded sub-munitions have the potential to remain lethal for years, posing a high risk to the civilian population, both during and after the conflict. Because they are inherently indiscriminate weapons, cluster munitions should not be used in any circumstances.

Members of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition should immediately provide the UN with precise locations of cluster munition attacks, including maps, data with the exact dates of strikes, specific types and quantities of the weapons used, in order to facilitate clearance and risk-education activities and to reduce the potential for further civilian casualties.

Saudi Arabia and other coalition members should facilitate clearance of areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance. States in a position to do so should provide all possible technical, financial, material, and other assistance to facilitate the marking and clearance, removal or destruction of cluster bomb submunitions, duds and other explosive remnants of war. They should also provide victim assistance, including for the medical and psychological care and rehabilitation of victims and their families, as well as risk education.