“[ISIS forces] have called for the systematic destruction of the entire Yezidi people, which would constitute genocide […] when we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then I believe the United States of America cannot turn a blind eye. We can act, carefully and responsibly, to prevent a potential act of genocide.”

The actions taken to relieve the Yezidis besieged by ISIS on Mt. Sinjar eventually allowed thousands of men, women and children without food and water to flee the mountain. Their homes had been obliterated and their cultural heritage ransacked by ISIS fighters.  

However, the 2014 campaign against Yezidis was not the first act of genocidal violence perpetrated against the community. The campaign also failed to absolve the US of its role in inadvertently providing an atmosphere conducive to ethnic cleansing and genocidal violence. The combination of Saddam Hussein’s brutality and the dreadful miscalculations made by American and British policymakers and the former dictator intensified the collapse of the Iraqi state. Equally, the neglect of minority communities in Iraq shown by successive administrations, combined with the dysfunctional government set up by Washington in Baghdad in the post-Saddam era, allowed violence to escalate against the Yezidis.

The Yezidi faith, like the Mandaean one, is a religion shrouded in secrecy by its clergy; it is a monotheist religion that incorporates several elements of the Christian, Zoroastrian, and Islamic faiths. To extremists cells such as Al-Qa’ida and ISIS, Yezidis are regarded as “devil worshippers” for their worship of Melek Taus, “the Peacock Angel” sometimes referred to as Shaytan, and which the Qu’ran calls Satan. The Yezidis’ concern with religious purity and honor also created practical problems for their integration in the region. In a region where honor killings and tribal

politics still hold considerable sway, Yezidi taboos and religious rules have come into conflict with other Iraqi communities and other tribes. This conflict was recently exemplified by the honor killing of Du’a where her Yezidi tribe stoned her to death for eloping with a Sunni Muslim. Clearly, honor killings are not a phenomenon purely linked to extremist cells such as ISIS, Al-Qa’ida and regimes such as Iran or Saudi Arabia.

The persecution of the Yezidis is not a recent phenomenon in Iraq. The historian Geraldine Chatelard has argued that most general historical works on modern Iraq fail to mention that “episodes of mass-displacement or forced migration…of political opponents such as the Yezidis is a trend that dates back to the mandate era” and Ottoman Empire. According to British diplomat Gerard Russell, the Yezidis “keep a list of seventy-two persecutions which they have been subjected to over the centuries.”

The Yezidis’ history has been punctuated by persecution at the hands of the Muslim majority in Iraq, while in modern times perpetual war in Iraq has continued to deal the Yezidi people a cruel hand. While Kurds were prioritized in American policymaking narratives during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Yezidis were not mentioned even when entire Yezidi districts were targeted by Saddam’s Arabization programmes in 1965 and between 1973-1975. The Yezidis refused to be incorporated into the Iraqi state as defined by the Ba’athist Party, a state formed along the lines of ethnicity. Resistance against these draconian programmes, violent and non-violent, culminated in genocide against the Kurdish and Yezidi communities during the Al-Anfal campaign in northern Iraq (1986-1989) as Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid pacified the rebellious provinces.

The consequences facing the Yezidis for rejecting the Ba’athist regime’s doctrine were severe. According to Human Rights Watch, these included resettlement, ethnic cleansing, and the en-masse disappearance of Yezidi men who were abducted and executed by military intelligence. As anti-genocide advocate and former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Powers argues, these minorities, like the Kurds, were ignored by both the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations. James Baker, the US Secretary of State under Bush, stated that “shifting a policy away from cooperation

towards confrontation is a difficult proposition when support for a “policy of engagement” with Saddam Hussein’s government is fiercely embedded.”

Furthermore, the Iran-Iraq War was a highly profitable enterprise for the West, the Soviet Union, regional powers, and businesses alike. Funnelling armaments, including chemical weapons, into Saddam’s military arsenal to contain the Islamic regime, meant ignoring the appalling genocidal violence being conducted against civilians in Iraq. In the 1980s, US policymakers and journalists treated Saddam’s genocide against the Kurds and Yezidis as a product of war rather than as a genocidal campaign, despite the methodical nature in which villages were collectivized, systematic slaughter was conducted within designated “prohibited zones,” and chemical weapons were used against the Kurds and other minorities, including the Yezidis and Turkmen. In some respects, these actions exceeded the recent violence of ISIS.

This legacy of overlooking the brutalization of Yezidi communities by Saddam escalated after the deposition of the police state by George W. Bush’s administration. Washington and London’s miscalculations during the occupation of Iraq, rather than safeguarding the basic human rights of minorities, exacerbated their plight and exodus from Iraq.

During the occupation, significant intercommunal violence spilled over into open civil war (2006-2007) across Iraq. Several hundred miles to the southeast of the Yezidi communities, the capital of Iraq, Baghdad, was ripped apart by Shi’a and Sunni death squads conducting pogroms against their respective religious sects as American soldiers, supported by Iraqi Security Forces, continued their counterinsurgency operations against Al-Qa’ida in Iraq and affiliated jihadist cells. The Yezidis were eventually drawn into this violence as the impact of Baghdad’s civil war rippled across the shredded Iraqi state.

On April 22, 2007 a bus making its way from Mosul’s Textile Factory to the town of Bashika to drop off factory workers to their homes was ordered to pull over by armed men. They boarded the bus and checked cards for identification. Upon completion, all passengers, with the exception of twenty-three of Yezidi men, were driven deep into the city as the convoy accompanying them pulled over in northern Mosul. Within minutes, they were ordered off the bus, lined up against the wall, and shot. The convoy of gunmen departed, leaving the bodies of the men in the street riddled with bullets and the wall spattered with their blood.

According to the international media, the murders were acts of retribution against the Yezidis after an incident in the town of Bashika twenty-five kilometres north of Mosul weeks earlier. Situated in tranquil hills and surrounded by lush olive groves, the town was a popular destination for Mosul residents to retreat from the bustle of the city for family picnics and to escape from the tumult of the city. Under the American occupation, Bashika had remained relatively stable despite the vicious civil war gripping the rest of the country; there, Yezidi temples, Muslim mosques and Christian churches stood in close proximity, presenting a rare image of tolerant coexistence. The town’s quiet nature in many ways epitomized the subtle richness and cultural diversity that came to define Ninewa’s province over centuries of history.

However, the grisly stoning of Du’a  stoked a blood-feud, one fed by the propaganda of the most brutal factions of the Iraq War. As Du’a’s stoning went viral, Islamist extremists smeared the reputation of Bashika, a predominantly Yezidi town, and caught the attention of the international media. By this stage, tit-for-tat killings, executions and kidnappings had become a norm in post-Saddam Iraq. This violence between the Yezidis and Sunnis underscores the sharpening divide between minority groups and Islamist Sunnis and Shiites. These developments were ignored as Petraeus’ decision to secure the streets of Baghdad and to reopen space for political coordination between Iraq’s three main sects (the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds) took priority. This move obscured the urgent threats facing minorities across the country.

With intermittent violence occurring daily alongside a counterinsurgency campaign, the stage was set for a devastating attack. While ISIS operatives were retreating, Sunni insurgents moved to occupy territories in the borderlands between Ninewa in Iraq and the Syrian provinces of Deir ez-Zor and al-Hasakah northwest of Iraq. These locations, ‘strips of the most impoverished and sparsely populated parts of Iraq and Syria,’ were the easiest places to escape US and ISF soldiers.

The territories of thousands of secular and religiously tolerant groups in the province were unprotected. For extremist cells, these groups presented an opportunity to foment sectarian violence and execute attacks against Ninewa’s soft underbelly. As Iraq’s most diverse province, dotted by perceived “devil worshippers,” “heretics,” and “infidels,” the minorities were soft targets for Al-Qa’ida cells. The increasing tensions between Yezidis and hardline Sunni Islamists had created an atmosphere that the terrorist organisation could exploit despite setbacks against the American occupation and Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. The Americans’ withdrawal from the region left minority groups vulnerable to attack, and jihadists were determined to take advantage of the security void left by the Americans.

On August 14, 2007 several trucks, each laced with 27,000 kilograms of explosives, destroyed the Yezidi villages of Kahtaniya and Jazeera. The coordinated suicide attacks killed over 800 men, women, and children, and wounded thousands more. The bombings by Al-Qa’ida in Iraq against the Yezidi communities in Kahtaniya and Jazeera were the second deadliest acts of terrorism in modern history behind the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Still, the acts of terror in Kahtaniya and Jazeera never gained the traction needed to highlight the plight of the Yezidis. The mass slaughter, while initially shocking, did not gain media coverage across the Western world. The massacre blended with news of other attacks as just another bombing in Iraq. Improvised Explosive Devices and Vehicle-Born Improvised Explosive Devices had swiftly become a deadly normality for Coalition soldiers and Iraqi civilians. To American policymakers, Kahtaniya and Jazeera was a blip in their “successful” surge. General Petraeus was determined to sell a disastrous war as an unqualified success, stating twenty-four days after the mass slaughter: “To summarize, the security situation in Iraq is improving, and Iraqis elements are slowly taking on more of the responsibility for protecting their citizens.”

In the shattered villages of Kahtaniya and Jazeera, Yezidi communities spoke not of peace, but of impending extermination by extremist cells such Al-Qa’ida in Iraq. “Their aim is to annihilate us, to create trouble and kill all Yezidis because we are not Muslims” explained one villager from Kahtaniya. Another villager stated bluntly: “Another bombing like this and there will be no more Yezidis left.” Their warnings and pleas—wedded to the dissemination of leaflets and the spread of hate speech branding Yezidis as infidels, heretics, and outlaws—were ignored, resulting in dire consequences for the religious community and other minorities in Ninewa. Following the end of the American occupation and withdrawal of soldiers, the Mas‘ud Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Peshmerga militia were unable to stop attacks launched against Yezidis living outside of the established security zone by Sunni militants.

Seven years later, Al-Qa’ida in Iraq reemerged in northern Iraq, cutting a swathe through Syria and Iraq as ISIS, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and former leaders of Saddam’s military. The Peshmerga, facing military defeat, fell back, with dire consequences for the Yezidis. ISIS’s project, founded upon the ultra-violent doctrine of Abu Bakr Naji “The Management of Savagery,” sought to “purify” Iraq and cleanse it of “apostates” and “heretics.” Shiites, Yezidis, Christians, and those who refused to pay jizya, a tax historically levied on non-Muslim subjects, faced a brutal ultimatum: leave or die.

ISIS evolved into a vicious regional faction. The factions were strengthened by strong cross-border ties with Sunni tribes in Syria and Iraq, the instability created by the Syrian War, the targeting of Sunni politicians, and the political alienation of the Sunni population by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. In this context, Baghdadi and his puritanical fighters decided they would cleanse Ninewa of its ethnic and religious minorities by conducting systematic rape, torture, abduction and harrowing violence against the Yezidis and other minorities.

In August 2014, in the shadow of Mount Sinjar, ISIS militants rounded up and massacred Yezidi men and boys in Sinjar and the surrounding villages of Kocho, Qiniyeh, Jadali, and Jazeera. Yezidis who refused to pledge loyalty to Baghdadi and convert to Islam were executed at roadsides and prison centres. Along the roadsides, those fleeing for Mt. Sinjar were intercepted by ISIS vehicles. Yezidi women and children were abducted in the hundreds as personal prizes for jihadist fighters and subjected to sexual abuse, forced marriages to fighters, or sexual slavery. Others were sold to traffickers whose trade had flourished since the collapse of the Iraqi state in 2003, resulting in increasingly porous borders. In the wake of the cleaning operations, 830,000 people were displaced, the entire Yezidi population in Iraq uprooted, and 40,000-50,000 fled to Mt. Sinjar, historically a place of refuge for the community during conflict.

In a nutshell, the horrific violence between the Yezidi and Sunni communities encapsulates the brutalization of Iraqi society, culture, and politics by decades of ceaseless conflict, external intervention, and brutal authoritarian rule. In equal measure, it perfectly summarizes the grave amnesia of the great powers playing geopolitics in the Middle East, whose illusions of control have stood in contrast to decades of conflict and its impact on the region and its minority communities. The decline of the Yezidi population to less than one million is a microcosm of this appalling tragedy.

—

Matthew C. K. Williams is a British freelance journalist with a MA degree in Conflict, Security and Development at King’s College London. Matthew has written for various NGOs and papers including Amnesty International, Strife, Aegis Trust, The Scottish Times and Osservatorio Mashrek. His current work for The Conflict Archives is focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iraq War, and insurgency across the Greater Middle East.”

One of the themes of the book is repetitive disappointment. Time and time again, humans worldwide have fallen victim to heinous crimes that were committed without much international resistance. Atrocities were allowed to proceed in Cambodia, Iraq, and Bosnia (among other places) for many reasons, not the least of which was political convenience.

In most cases, perpetrators of genocide, atrocities, and chemical weapons attacks conducted these acts with the knowledge that the world had neither the willpower nor the mechanisms to deliver justice. In almost all cases, we were reluctant to believe, slow to listen, late to mobilize, and horrified by the magnitude of suffering that had occurred. Our world has changed immeasurably since politically uncomfortable reports of Iraqi chemical weapons attacks on Iranian soldiers and Iraqi Kurds fell on unlistening ears in the late ‘80s. If it happened today, we wouldn’t just listen – we would act. Wouldn’t we?

The conflict in Syria has been riddled by allegations of chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime since at least late 2012. A cursory Google search of allegations unearths a Wikipedia page dedicated to the use of chemical weapons in Syria which notes almost 60 incidents where chemical weapons were reported as being used. Although UN investigators actually responded to allegations with a report in a somewhat timely manner (compared to Iraq in the 80s), the investigators were careful not to assign blame to any party – even when it was determined that missiles carrying chemical weapons were launched from government-controlled territory.

Any form of military intervention in Syria was avoided when the Syrian government agreed to eliminate its entire chemical weapon stockpile. I have issues with what seems to be the conceptual equivalent of a murderer avoiding jail time by turning in his gun, but at least it was progress. Almost a year ago to date, Syria’s declared chemical weapons stockpile was announced to be completely destroyed. Of course, there were always suspicions that the Assad regime was hiding undeclared caches of chemicals, but at least it was progress.

Marking the success, President Obama commented the collective “we” had sent “a clear message that the use of these abhorrent weapons has consequences and will not be tolerated by the international community.” But really, were the consequences so severe?

The Assad regime seems to think not. In early May, US officials accused the regime of continued use of chlorine gas on civilians. In July, The Wall Street Journal published a story headlined “Mission to Purge Syria of Chemical Weapons Comes Up Short”, which was exactly what it sounds like. Two weeks ago, the UN adopted a measure to finally identify the party(s) responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Even after perpetrators are officially identified after years of essentially unimpeded use, prosecution could be “years or more than a decade away.” It doesn’t take an expert to see the similarities between the atrocities occurring and Syria and those that occurred in Iraq, Bosnia, and many other places before.

I think there is value in reflecting on the failures of our conventions and red lines, just as there is value in considering that we are likely underestimating the number of casualties caused by chemical weapons in Syria – just as we have in conflicts before. In “A Problem From Hell” (2002), Ambassador Power notes her fear that the “Kosovo intervention and the Milosevic trial, once thought to mark important precedents, may come to represent high-water marks in genocide prevention and punishment”. Thirteen years later, the water level is mostly unchanged. We have grown better at believing (mostly), and the international community does a whole lot of listening now. Still, that’s not enough.

We have the evidence, and we have the responsibility to act on it. If we choose to forget past lessons and drag our feet even more in Syria, we’ll again be horrified by the magnitude of suffering we inevitably uncover.

Burma deported 37 Rohingya to Bangladesh.  The people were found by the Burmese navy on a boat in the Bay of Bengal in May in an attempt to migrate.  Those who the Burmese authorities identified as Bangladeshi have been deported, while the others remain in makeshift camps.  In a separate incident, when Aung San Suu Kyi was asked this week whether Rohingya should be given citizenship, she did not give a clear answer, instead saying that the matter should be addressed “very, very carefully.”  At her 70th birthday celebration, she called on her National League of Democracy (NLD) supporters to prepare for a landslide victory in this year’s election.  However, their chances could be hampered by irregular voting lists, which the NLD claimed were frequently erroneous and contained errors in 30 to 80% of names in Rangoon Division.  The NLD will likely not get much support from Ma Ba Tha, and a prominent monk told the Buddhist nationalist organization to vote for the incumbent government rather than the opposition NLD.  At the same conference, Ma Ba Tha called for Muslim girls to be banned from wearing headscarves in schools.

Eight representatives of Burma’s ethnic minorities met with Chinese officials, following in the footsteps of Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to China last week.  In Shan State, ethnic armed group The Restoration Council of Shan State was caught in controversy, where a prominent member of the Ta’ang National Party accused the armed group of abducting his party’s president and secretary.

A senior military MP has made clear his opposition to a change to constitutional Article 436.  The NLD has been trying to change the provision that requires a 75% vote to pass legislation.  As unelected military MPs are given 25% of seats, it essentially gives the military a veto.  Brigadier General Tin San Niang said Burma did not have enough experience with democracy to remove the provision.

Amnesty International has released a report on the harassment and limitations Burmese journalists face.  Although Burma removed many long-standing restrictions on journalists in 2012, journalist still operate in a climate of fear.  Burma’s government has dismissed the claims.

Central African Republic (CAR)

The controversy over Anders’ Kompass decision to send French authorities a report on French peacekeeper sex abuse in CAR continues.  It has created an internal split in the UN, with High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein seeing the disclosure as a leak while many see Kompass as a whistleblower.  The UN has hired an external panel to investigate the allegations.  There was also a new case of peacekeeper sex abuse that emerged this week.

CAR has scheduled the electoral calendar for this year.  A census will take place between June 27th and July 27th, a referendum on the new constitution will take place on October 4th, Presidential and Parliamentary elections will occur on October 18th, and if a second round of elections is needed it will take place on November 22nd.  The elections will require a budget of $34.6 million, but only about half of that has already been funded.  Additionally, the National Elections Observatory has called for reform in the electoral code to improve the elections.

DR Congo (DRC)

Clashes took place in North Kivu with Congolese soldiers facing off against Mai Mai and FDLR combatants.  There do not appear to have been heavy casualties.  There was also fighting in Garamba National Park, where poachers killed two soldiers and one ranger in an ambush.  The poachers are believed to be from South Sudan, which borders the park.  In Western DRC, there was a riot at a camp for ex-militants.  The camp houses over 800 surrendered militants from multiple groups.  After a rumor started that a guard had stolen $30,000 intended for rations at the camp, a riot broke out and the militants demanded to be set free and allowed to return home.

The preparations for the upcoming elections have been disrupted by duplicates on a number of electoral lists for provincial elections.  Candidates have asked for ten days to correct the problems.

The McCain Institute has released rare polling data from North Kivu.  The poll found people had little trust in the electoral commission and 77% of people opposed changing the constitution to allow a third term for Joseph Kabila.  The Congolese military and police were given 69% and 57% approval ratings, respectively, while UN peacekeepers only got a 21% approval rating.  Large majorities approved of measures to increase female representatives in government.

South Sudan

The SPLM-IO has said it remains committed to the Arusha process but said the talks should not be in Juba.  Meanwhile, Riek Machar met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi.  Also, Pagan Amul has been reinstated as SPLM Secretary-General.  The SPLM convened a special meeting after the appointment.

The South Sudanese government has announced that it plans to resume oil production in Unity state.  Oil production has been stopped for over a year because of instability resulting from the war.  The UN had criticism for the South Sudanese government, saying the SPLM has consistently failed to cooperate with the UN and not given proper access to UN workers in the country.  In Western Bahr el Ghazal state, the government arrested a journalist without explanation before releasing him the next day.

Four women and one man were injured in a shooting at an IDP camp in Juba.  While the perpetrators are not confirmed, residents of the camp accused government soldiers.  The SPLM-IO also had accusations for the SPLM, claiming they had restarted fighting in Jonglei state in violation of the cessation of hostilities agreement.

Sudan

The continuation of UNAMID remains in question.  Its mandate has been extended for a year by the African Union, although an exit strategy remains in place.  However, the UN Security Council still must approve the measure for it to take effect, but that vote has been postponed until next week.  The Sudanese government had called for the mandate not to be renewed while the United States insisted that it should be.  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called for the renewal of the mandate.

President Omar al-Bashir announced Sudan would conduct a census in 2018, the country’s first since the succession of South Sudan.  In another announcement, he said that the army had obtained weapons that made it a “large and sophisticated deterrent force.”  The Sudanese government also criticized the United States for its failure to remove Sudan from the state sponsors of terrorism list, citing “double standards.”

The leader of the Reform Now Movement, Ghazi Salah al-Din Attabani, has criticized the government’s conduct during peace negotiations.  He warned that if dialogue did not succeed Sudan would have a major security problem.

Syria

Multiple armed groups have engaged in heavy fighting over the last week.  Supported by US airstrikes, the Kurdish YPG made large advances into ISIS territory, capturing a military base and the town Ain Issa.  The advance placed themselves within 50 km of ISIS’s capital, Raqqa, but Kurdish forces have said they do not intend to march on Raqqa.  Turkey, an opponent of the YPG, was concerned with their advance and accused the YPG of ethnic cleansing.  However, ISIS responded by attacking the important Kurdish-held city Kobani as well as Assad-held areas in Hasakah.  In Deraa, an alliance of rebels fought government forces in an attempt to take the city.

ISIS has moved to stop oil flows to areas controlled by other forces.  As ISIS controls almost all of Syria’s oil, civilians are fearful that hospitals may not be able to function and that there will be massive food shortages.  The think tank Chatham House released a report detailing the extent of Syria’s economic collapse as a result of the war, and said that it could weaken the Assad regime.  The war has also led to increased class divisions, with middle and upper classes tending to support Assad while lower classes support the rebels.  The Assad regime also still has support from Russia, and President Putin reaffirmed his position that Assad should stay in power.

The UN released a report documenting attacks on civilians from the Assad government and rebels, noting that the Assad government has bombed Aleppo daily for the last year.  The Assad government has also struck ten medical facilities with barrel bombs since May.  Over 70 countries condemned the Assad government for their human rights abuses.

Emerging Conflicts: Iraq

Conflict continues to rage in Iraq as ISIS conducted a number of attacks in the last week.  Northeast of Fallujah ISIS attacked Iraqi army forces and then lured them into an ambush, killing 14.  In western Anbar province, rockets killed nine after hitting a number of civilian installations, while six were killed after a car bomb exploded in Baghdad.  In Diyala province, 14 people were killed when an ISIS suicide bomber attacked a meeting of Sunni tribal leaders.

Four years after exiting Iraq, NATO plans to renew their involvement in the conflict.  Details are not completely determined yet, but it seems likely that NATO will train Iraqi troops.  The WHO, however, may be forced to shut down their network of 77 clinics in the country due to poor funding and a lack of security.  Meanwhile, US airstrikes continue, one of which killed ISIS commander and suspect in the Benghazi attack, Ali Awni al-Harzi.  Another airstrike may have caused a number of civilian casualties, and the Pentagon has launched an investigation into the strike.

Just one week ago, President Obama confirmed that the U.S. would not apply the principle of “near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured” in its operations in Iraq and Syria, given that they are areas of “active hostilities.”  This news came with reports of dozens of civilian deaths in Syria following a U.S. airstrike in Kafr Daryan.  Bearing in mind that military action is bound by the principles of distinction, proportionality and necessity, the United States has a clear obligation to prevent civilian deaths, even in its crucial operations in Iraq and Syria.

Failing to take adequate measures to prevent civilian deaths not only violates international humanitarian law, but also runs counter to the stated strategy to degrade and destroy the Islamic State. Civilian casualties have already caused popular Syrian discontent with American bombings in the country and caused Syrian resentment toward moderate armed opposition groups the White House plans to train and equip. Several Syrian commanders of such groups have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the air strikes and the high civilian casualties that the strikes have caused. Ultimately, civilian deaths caused by U.S. bombing only strengthens support for the Islamic State and other violent extremist groups as they seek to portray the United States and its allies as the enemy of the Syrian people.

Acknowledging that information both from US military and groups on the ground is often difficult to verify, STAND would like to echo the questions of the letter drafted by The Prevention and Protection Working Group and addressed to President Obama:

• What special precautions is the U.S. taking to protect civilians endangered by U.S. military operations?

• What steps are being taken not to harm health facilities, medical personnel, or other first responders, and to avoid further damage to systems and infrastructure that support necessary services including water and food?

• What are the diplomatic strategies that the U.S. government is pursuing both with Iraqi tribal leaders in Sunni majority areas vulnerable to IS recruitment efforts as well as with partners like Turkey and Qatar, and civil society leaders and organizations? How is the U.S. engaging diplomatically with these same internal and external actors to peel away and present viable nonviolent alternatives to those who have joined IS?

• Underscoring the need for long-term solutions and recognizing that airstrikes are incapable of reaching a successful resolution to the crisis, how is the U.S. government engaging in peacebuilding and development in the short term and beyond to support a successful transition out of cycles of violence?

• What is the U.S. doing to investigate reports of civilians being killed and any allegations of violations of international humanitarian law on the part of U.S. armed forces or that of U.S. partners, including the September 23 incident in the village of Kafr Daryan?

Syrian civilians are already feeling the effects of United States airstrikes.  Many have been forced to flee, and those who have not face dire humanitarian crises ahead.  Furthermore, in Iraq civilians face conditions that the UN claims may amount to serious human rights violations and war crimes.  In light of these conditions, we urge the United States to be vigilant in protecting civilians in Iraq and Syria.

In Solidarity,

STAND: the Student-led Movement to End Mass Atrocities

Burma

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has produced a documentary detailing the plight of the Rohingya in Burma’s Rakhine state. The documentary itself can be found here. Kristof’s answers to viewers’ questions can be found here.

Fighting in Burma’s Shan state between the Burmese military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has reportedly killed at least four government soldiers this week, Kachin rebel sources say. James Lum Dau, the deputy chief of foreign affairs for the KIA’s political wing, told the Irrawaddy Magazine that government troops had not only clashed with the KIA, but with other ethnic armed groups such as the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). Lum Dau warned that there would be no nationwide ceasefire agreement if the government continued to attack ethnic minorities while simultaneously negotiating peace proposals. “So long as the government is insincere in the peace process, there will be no peace.” He said.

Central African Republic

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that thousands of people have fled this past week from deadly attacks by various armed groups in the Central African Republic town of Bambari. At least 45 people have been killed and scores wounded in the attacks and counterattacks. UNHCR staff in Bambari say that the town has been reduced to a ghost city, and that Christian neighborhoods have been virtually emptied of residents from previous attacks. Displacement sites, however, are packed with people.

The head of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, urged the Security Council to to take strong action to help restore the rule of law in the Central African Republic and bolster women’s participation, leadership and protection. Women in the Central African Republic face rape and sexual slavery perpetrated by armed groups. These crimes often occur during house-to-house searches, at unauthorized roadblocks, at military camps, and as part of sectarian violence. Ninety percent of internally displaced person camps lack services for survivors of gender-based violence. The very few services that are available assist hundreds of victims of rape every month.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Autopsies on five bodies returned by Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo showthey were likely executed. The Rwandan government says the men were killed in combat after they attacked Rwandan soldiers on its territory. This comes in the wake of clashes between the two states early in June.

The Rwandan Hutu militia, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), iscontinuing to disarm, with 83 soldiers surrendering their weapons last week, and another 105 doing so the week before. The group has been active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the past 20 years and has committed numerous crimes against civilians in the DRC during that time. One of its leaders, Sylvestre Mudacumura, is also wanted by the International Criminal Court because of his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

South Sudan

The US based Fund for Peace has named South Sudan the most fragile state in the world, citing chronic instability, fractured leadership and growing ethnic conflict. Somalia had held the title since 2008.

Former South Sudanese political prisoner, Ezekial Lol Gatkuoth, has joined Riek Machar’s rebels. Gatkuoth, a senior officer in the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), had been detained with ten others following the outbreak of violence in South Sudan in mid-December last year on charges related to an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

South Sudan’s upper house of parliament has ratified a peace agreement signed between the government and Jonglei-based rebel leader David Yau Yau. Yau Yau launched military campaigns in the Pibor county of Jonglei state after he lost elections for Jonglei’s state assembly seat in 2010 and accused the SPLM of rigging the polls. He rejoined the government in 2011, but rebelled again a year later. The South Sudanese government believes the agreement is the best way to address development failures in Pibor county.

Sudan

Sudanese troops and rebels have been engaged in heavy fighting near the South Kordofan state capital of Kadugli. Reports of casualties could not be immediately confirmed and analysts say to treat figures given by either side with caution. Like the Darfur conflict, the three-year-old South Kordofan war has been fuelled by complaints among non-Arab groups of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi travelled to Khartoum to meet with his Sudanese counterpart, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, last week. The two discussed both bilateral and regional issues. Afterwards, the two countries’ foreign ministers issued a joint statement saying that they will form a joint committee in the upcoming three months to enhance bilateral relations. The article made no mention, however, of how Sisi’s visit with Bashir, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, may further damage Sisi’s already poor human rights record.

Syria and Iraq

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has declared an Islamic Caliphate in an area straddling Iraq and Syria. The group has also dropped Iraq and Syria from its name, calling itself simply ‘The Islamic State.’ A spokesperson for the Islamic State said the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is the leader of the new caliphate and called on Muslims everywhere, not just those in areas under the organisation’s control, to swear loyalty to him. The spokesperson of the Grand Mufti of Egypt, however, has dismissed ISIS’s caliphate as an illusion. “What they [ISIS] called the Islamic caliphate is merely a response to the chaos which has happened in Iraq as a direct result of the inflammation of sectarian conflict in the entire region,” the spokesperson said.

President Obama requested $500 million from Congress to train and equip appropriately vetted members of the Syrian opposition. However, military and State Department officials have indicated that there were not yet any specific programs to arm and train the rebels the money would fund. Administration officials could not specify which moderate Syrian opposition members they intended to train or support, or where these rebel fighters would be trained.

At least two people were killed in a car bomb blast at a market in Douma, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, as residents shopped a day before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local activists believe ISIS was behind the attack, due to the group’s rivalry with other rebel groups in the area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has also reported that ISIS fighters crucified eight men said to be rival rebel fighters in the town square of Deir Hafer in Syria’s Aleppo province on Saturday as a warning to others.

Burma

A UN envoy to Burma has reported appalling conditions in displacement camps which hold around 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya Muslims. According to the envoy, the displaced Rohingya had wholly inadequate access to basic services including health, education, water and sanitation. In March, extremist Buddhists who accused international aid groups of bias towards Muslims, raided warehouses and destroyed property causing most of the humanitarian organisations which provided vital assistance to the displaced Rohingya to pull out their staff. The UN says only 60% of the workers have been able to return.

Burma’s minister of religious affairs was fired by President Thein Sein last week. The dismissal of Minister of Religious Affairs Hsan Hsint came in the wake of a high-profile police raid on a Buddhist monastery which angered many Buddhist monks, including the popular Ashin Wirathu. Wirathu is known to give impassioned speeches which contain anti-Muslim rhetoric. Additionally, the chief minister of the Rakhine state (where conflict between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority is rife), Hla Maung Tin, has been ‘allowed to retire.’ The phrase is often used as a euphemism meaning a minister was asked to leave. Win Myaing, spokesperson of the Rakhine state government, declined to comment on the chief minister’s retirement.

Central African Republic

A Christian militia has attacked a Muslim village near Bambari, killing 18 residents. This attack comes just two weeks after fighting between Christian militias and Muslim gunmen based in the area killed 21. The International Federation for Human Rights reports that the tit-for-tat violence evidenced by this attack threaten to create the conditions for a genocide reminiscent of Bosnia in the 1990s.

The United States pledged an additional $51 million in humanitarian aid to the Central African Republic (CAR). This new assistance brings the total U.S. humanitarian funding for the crisis to nearly $118 million in Fiscal Year 2014, helping people inside CAR as well as refugees in neighboring countries. The aid will provide clean water, food, emergency health services and relief supplies. It will also support programs that identify lost children and reunite them with surviving caregivers, create safe spaces for displaced children, and fund psychological services.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

World Refugee Day was June 20. This week’s section on the Democratic Republic of the Congo will highlight the DRC’s refugee population. Since 2000, around 500,000 people have fled from violence and instability in the DRC. Most live in neighboring countries, particularly Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

All statistics come from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

South Sudan

South Sudan’s rebels have boycotted the peace talks between them and the government in protest against what they consider unfair processes in the selection of other stakeholders in the negotiations. Rebel spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, argued that the selection process of the civil society organizations and faith-based groups included in the talks as stakeholders was biased, as groups who fled the country and now live abroad were excluded from participation, and that the groups picked are dominated by the pro-government societies from Juba.

Doctors Without Borders reports ‘catastrophic’ conditions at the United Nations base in Beitnu, South Sudan, where more than 40,000 people have taken refuge from rampant violence. The group says three children under five are dying each day, with most deaths linked to acute diarrhea, pneumonia, or malnutrition. Clean drinking water is also hard to come by at the base, as flooding and violence have made it difficult for water trucks to reach the area, forcing people to drink from puddles contaminated with human waste.

Sudan

Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for refusing to abandon her Christian faith and then released on Monday, was rearrested with her husband and two children at the Khartoum airport on Tuesday while trying to leave the country. Ms. Ibrahim’s father was Muslim but she had been raised a Christian by her mother after her father abandoned her family when she was six.

The Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) launched a Justice Committee, and a Truth and Reconciliation Committee in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, on Monday. DRA chairman Dr Tijani Sese cited the successes of past Justice and Truth and Reconciliation Committees in South Africa, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Morocco, and Argentina, and called upon the committees to assume their full responsibilities towards achieving justice, and assessing the root causes of the conflict in Darfur. However, Darfuris living in displacement camps have expressed no confidence in the new committees, citing that the committees cannot achieve their goals while militias supported by the Sudanese government continue to systematically burn villages and displace people.

After surrounding the South Kordofan village of Lagori for many hours, a joint force of Sudanese Army soldiers and Police raided the village, searched it, and kidnapped ten villagers, including the mayor. The Nuba Mountains-based Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO) reports that the villagers were taken into military custody and tortured. HUDO also believes that the raid was linked with the government forces’ defeat in nearby Daldako, a stronghold of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), last month.

The Sudanese government has reconstituted the janajweed, militias known for destroying villages and murdering civilians belonging to ethnic groups the government considers ‘enemies.’ In the past, the government has denied their links with the janjaweed, but this time has provided the militias with uniforms, weapons, and other equipment.

Syria and Iraq

The last of Syria’s declared chemical weapons have been shipped out of the country for destruction, says the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). However, it appears that President Assad may not have revealed the full extent of his chemical capabilities. A joint OPCW-UN operation is currently investigating Assad’s use of chlorine gas in systematic attacks.

Human Rights Watch reported on Monday that Syrian rebel groups, including the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic Front, the Nusra Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have used child soldiers in roles including soldiers, stretcher bearers, and suicide bombers. Some children followed family members or friends into armed groups, while others were already in conflict zones and had no other options. Nusra and ISIS both targeted children through education programs containing military training. Commanders of these two groups also encouraged children to volunteer for suicide missions. Though not included in the report, pro-government forces have also been alleged to have used child fighters.

The Syrian government, rebel groups based in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, and many Palestinian factions have reportedly agreed to a ceasefire there. The ceasefire will both open the main entrances to the camp and restore basic services. About 18,000 people have lived under siege since last July, with food and medicine scarce, and parts of the camp lying in complete ruin.

The Syrian government warned the UN Security Council that delivering humanitarian aid across its borders into rebel-held areas without the government’s consent would amount to an attack, suggesting it would have the right to retaliate against UN convoys. Russia has made it clear that it was against allowing cross-border access without the consent of the Syrian government and opposed a Chapter 7 resolution, which would make the resolution allowing the UN to deliver humanitarian aid across Syria’s borders into rebel held areas legally binding and enforceable with military action or other coercive measures such as sanctions.

What is ISIS

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (also referred to as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS or ISIL) is a jihadist group that hopes to create an Islamic caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria. The group is commanded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who had joined the insurgency against the 2003 US invasion and later spent 5 years in prison after being captured. ISIS can trace its roots to Tawhid and Jihad, a Sunni group which rose against the US and Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Tawhid and Jihad linked itself with Al Qaeda in 2004 and rebranded itself Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2006, it rebranded itself as the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). ISI became ISIS when Baghdadi turned his sights toward the Syrian civil war in 2012. ISIS is thought to include thousands of fighters, including many foreignersfrom the across the Arab world, the Caucasus, and the West. Al Qaeda Central disowned the group in early 2014, citing its refusal to obey orders from central command to leave Syria and focus on Iraq, and its brutality in the field. ISIS has fought with other rebel groups, tortured detainees, actively recruited child soldiers, and summarily executed civilians while fighting in Syria.

Where is ISIS

ISIS has a strong presence in northern Syria including Aleppo and Raqqa and in a number of Iraqi towns near the Turkish and Syrian borders. It has also conquered the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, much of Ramadi, Mosul, Tikrit, and currently threatens Baghdad. Having this corridor helps ISIS move money, fighters, and equipment between Iraq and Syria.

Who is threatened?

The falling of large swaths of territory into ISIS’s hands provides ISIS a staging point to launch attacks across the Middle East and beyond. However, those under the most threat from ISIS are civilians living in the captured territory. Syrian civilians who live in formerly ISIS-controlled territory report that the group demanded strict adherence to their narrow interpretation of Islamic law with public beatings and executions for those who disobeyed. It is likely ISIS will continue their brutal methods in Iraq. Shi’ite Muslims, who ISIS considers infidels, and Iraq and Syria’s non-Muslim minorities are especially vulnerable.

International Response

President Obama said on June 12 that he is not ruling out any options for a response to ISIS’s advances. The White House later clarified that “boots on the ground” was not under consideration. Potential responses include expanded intelligence and targeting assistance for Iraqi military forces, airstrikes against the militant group, and potentially drone strikes. Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki has requested both piloted air and drone strikes. However, a number of lawmakers say they expect President Obama to consult with Congress before taking any direct action.

Iranian officials have also called for action against ISIS. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said that, “The expansion of terrorist elements of [ISIS] and their violent acts in Iraq was a warning for the region…. There is a need for attention and action from governments and the international community.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Marzieh Afkham, condemned the ISIS attacks in Mosul, calling them a danger that reaches beyond Iraq’s borders. She later expressed Iran’s readiness to help the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government in confronting terrorism.

Secretary Kerry has signaled that the Obama administration was open to cooperating with Iran on Iraq and a senior US diplomat and has met with his Iranian counterpart in Vienna toexplore whether the United States and Iran could work together to create a more stable Iraqi government and ease the threat from ISIS.

Burma

A parliamentary committee has voted to retain a constitutional clause barring opposition leader and pro-democracy advocate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from standing for president. The clause bans anyone with non-Burmese partners or children from running. Suu Kyi’s late husband and two children are British citizens. Parliament must still vote on the ruling before it is final.

According to the United Nations, more than 86,000 people, the majority Rohingya, fleeing Burmese pogroms, have left by boat since the latest round of ethnic violence broke out in mid-2012. These refugees brave rough waters in barely seaworthy crafts to reach the supposed safe havens of Indonesia, Thailand, or Malaysia. However, upon reaching their new countries, many are sold to traffickers and used as forced laborers, often on fishing boats.

Hundreds of ethnic Palaung in Shan State’s Kutkai Township have fled their homes after the Burmese Army fired artillery on their village amid ongoing clashes between the military and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). According to TNLA spokesperson Mai Aie Kyaw, there were no TNLA troops stationed in the village, and that the artillery shelling appeared to be intended to scare Ton Pan’s civilian inhabitants. He added that all those who fled had sought refuge in a village nearby.

Central African Republic

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is appealing to neighbouring countries to keep their borders open and allow access to safe haven for people on the run from the Central African Republic. This appeal comes amid reports that Chad has recently turned back CAR citizens seeking safety at the Sido border entry point. Since the conflict began in 2012, around 226,000 people have fled to neighboring countries while an estimated 550,000 are displaced within the CAR.

Central African Republic Prime Minister, Andre Nzapayeke, called for a pause in his country’s civil war so citizens could enjoy the World Cup. He specifically appealed to young people to fully enjoy the event and warned them against taking part in the fighting. Prime Minister Nzapayeke later said that he hoped the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts on June 28, will provide another opportunity to put the fighting on hold.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

A report from the human rights group Freedom from Torture has found that security forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are systematically raping President Joseph Kabila’s female opponents. The type of “crimes” the female political activists were punished for included storing and distributing political leaflets, banners and T-shirts and attending meetings and demonstrations. Rape by state security forces can be defined as an act of torture under international law.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) information minister says hundreds of rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) from South and North Kivu provinces have been disarming as part of the government’s program to improve security and stabilize the country. The government’s disarmament program is expected to last between the next two to three weeks, according to Mende. He says the administration in Kinshasa expects other armed groups to also disarm. As of now, about 15% of FDLR fighters are in Congolese government camps after they voluntarily disarmed.

Syria and Iraq

Syrian government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on opposition-held districts of Aleppo on Monday, killing at least 31 people including several children. Two bombs hit the Sukkari neighborhood minutes apart, the second catching those who had gone to the assistance of the casualties from the first. Human rights groups consider the regime’s use of barrel bombs against international law, as the bombs lack any guidance mechanism, causing indiscriminate casualties. Elsewhere in Syria, rebel shelling of a government-held area of the Idlib province killed 13 people, 8 of which were children.

The United Nations Human Rights chief, Navi Pillay, has said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Levant (ISIS/ISIL) and their allies have almost certainly executed soldiers, military conscripts, police and others who had surrendered or had been captured, in several locations around Tikrit. Pictures posted on a Twitter account sympathetic to ISIL show masked fighters loading the captives on trucks before forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied behind their backs. The final pictures show bodies soaked in blood after being shot.

South Sudan

United Nations aid agencies have appealed for $1 billion to provide humanitarian aid to millions of South Sudanese affected by the conflict. The United Nations hopes to use this money to save lives, prevent a famine, and avert the loss of a generation of children and young people to this conflict.

South Sudan’s Vice President, James Igga, vowed in Kampala, Uganda, on Saturday, that Juba would neither accept President Salva Kiir to step down nor form a power-sharing interim government which would include the rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM-in-Opposition). Rebel spokesperson, James Gatdet Dak, claimed that Igga’s remarks were inconsistent with the agreed agenda currently on the table as well as the spirit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-mediated peace talks in Addis Ababa. A proposal for the two rival parties to negotiate a peace agreement within 60 days that would lead to formation of a transitional government– the composition of which is yet to be negotiated– is currently on the table.

Sudan

The United Nations Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Sudan, Mashood Baderin arrived in Khartoum on Sunday for a ten-day visit. Baderin said his visit to Sudan will discuss the reality of the human rights situation in the country and developments that have occurred, especially in Darfur and South Kordofan. He will will visit the states of South Darfur and Blue Nile and meet a number of state officials at the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs, civil society organizations, and editors of newspapers. He will conclude his visit with a press conference.

The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, has accused Sudan of intensifying attacks on civilians in the southern states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Power said that ground and air attacks have increased since April, with hundreds of barrel bombs and other explosives dropped on towns and villages, deliberately targeting hospitals and schools. She also condemned the alleged targeting of civilian aid workers, which she said would seriously violate international law if proven accurate.