ICRC: 1.25 million missing in Iraq since 2003

[size=52]ICRC: 1.25 million missing in Iraq since 2003[/size]

[size=45]In the backyard of Baghdad's Medical City, old and young women gathered, their grief united by their black gowns. As the women started slapping their faces, one of them screamed while holding the picture of her son tightly to her chest: “After him, Zughayer, he was not even eighteen. In all hospitals, I did not find any trace of him,” according to what was reported by the Daraj website.[/size]
[size=45]In an attempt to search for their missing children in the October demonstrations two years ago, the missing and forcibly disappeared people continue the journey of the father of the disappeared lawyer Ali Gaseb, who kept carrying his son's picture, and demanded that all parties reveal his fate for two whole years, until he was assassinated by armed factions.[/size]
[size=45]You also hear from the families of the forcibly disappeared, the story of another young man named Abdul Masih Romeo who was kidnapped in Al-Khilani Square in central Baghdad, after participating in the October protests a year and a half ago, and the riot forces arrested him with another group, according to a group of protesters, who witnessed his arrest, while I tried His family search for him in all government prisons to no avail.[/size]
[size=45]On February 1, 2020, journalist and researcher Mazen Latif was kidnapped, a few days later journalist Tawfiq Al-Tamimi was kidnapped, and neither of them has been located until this time.[/size]
[size=45]Too expensive![/size]
[size=45]All stories are similar in pain. Dozens of tales, the fates of their heroes are unknown. Its impact on their families seems more severe than killing. Because pain is different when a person knows the fate of his loved ones, and can bury them in the dirt and say goodbye. In cases like this, hope is synonymous with pain. In the city of Saqlawiya in western Iraq, five years after the liberation of the areas that were under the control of ISIS, and the control of the Popular Mobilization factions and some factions loyal to Iran, the family of Al-Mugheeb Amer Fadel (35 years old) had sold their house in exchange for payment to someone, who promised them to know the fate of their son kidnapped by armed groups loyal to Iran.[/size]
[size=45]Amer's wife, Maha, lives in a small room in a farmland, and someone in her city provided her for her to stay there until her husband returns, after she lost her home. The niqab covered her face while her children watched in anticipation, fearing that our presence would cause the armed factions to come, because they are accustomed to the periodic inspection tours.[/size]
[size=45]Maha says: “Every time someone came to us and promised to know where my husband is and take the money, and when we go to the prison he mentions, we find no trace of him, until we had to sell the house in order to look for my husband, perhaps he is in one of the prisons of the armed factions. So they told us last time, but who can reach them? I reject the fact that he was killed, as long as we do not see a body, he is alive.”[/size]
[size=45]In one of Anbar’s areas, Saeed Kazem is waiting for the return of his three children, the youngest of whom is 17 years old. They were arrested four years ago by members of the “Popular Mobilization” after their faction was attacked in the area, after which they arrested all the men of the area, including Saeed’s children, he says Since that time, I have not left a hospital or prison, I have not looked for my children, one of them was having difficulty breathing and I do not know if they are still alive. I am ready to sacrifice my life in exchange for seeing them or even hearing any news about them.[/size]
[size=45]Saeed’s eyes filled with tears as he spoke while looking at his eldest son’s children: “There were parties from the armed factions, I don’t know if they were from the Popular Mobilization Forces or Hezbollah, they asked for money in exchange for liberating my children from prison. One of them told me that my children are in al-Hout prison and they are accused of belonging to ISIS and he will cooperate with an officer to change the case, and since that time I have not been able to obtain any information about them, and I do not know if they are in prison or not.”[/size]
[size=45]On a blazing summer afternoon, a group of forcibly disappeared mothers gathered in front of the al-Hout prison in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, hoping to find their loved ones among the prisoners. They stood on the ground facing the prison, where the heat of the asphalt was enough to sting their feet, and one of them ran to beg the prison guards to search for her son's name among the prisoners.[/size]
[size=45]Million missing Iraqis?[/size]
[size=45]OHCHR has documented 75 cases of absenteeism since the start of the Tishreen demonstrations in late 2019, a number of them were released, while the fate of 50 of them has not been reached. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Iraq is one of the countries that records missing persons in the world, as the International Committee concerned with them, which works in partnership with the Iraqi government to help uncover their fate, estimates that the number of missing persons in Iraq, since before the fall of Saddam’s regime Hussein, ranging from 250 thousand to one million people.[/size]
[size=45]Farhan confirms that during the period of the armed factions' control over the liberated areas, innocent people who were not wanted were killed in the database of the Ministry of Interior and Defense, and there are no official documents about their deaths. These violations have continued since that time to this day, and during the military operations in the governorates of Anbar, Salah al-Din and Nineveh, more than 23,000 cases of absenteeism were documented.[/size]
[size=45]With the outbreak of demonstrations in Baghdad and the southern governorates, the Center documented more than 75 cases of enforced disappearance of activists and civilians from the demonstration squares, the fate of which is unknown and the party that kidnapped them, and the government in Baghdad is unable to work to release them.[/size]
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