Iraq: 26-year-old Citizen Abducted From his House in Latifiya Disappeared For Two Years

On the night of 1 July 2014, Hussein Azzawi was in his house in Latifiya, a town south of Baghdad, when 10 military officers broke in and arrested him, before taking him away in a pickup truck. Until today, his family was not able to obtain any information on his fate and whereabouts. Concerned over his fate, on 19 July 2016, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent a communication to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), hoping that this treaty body − a committee of independent experts that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties by its State parties − could help locate the victim.

At midnight on 1 July 2014, 10 military officers in black uniforms and heavily armed arrived at Hussein's house in two military Silverado pickup trucks. Once at his house, as a secret informant accompanying the officers recognised Hussein, they arrested him without a warrant or giving him any reason. Hussein's relatives do not understand why he has been arrested, especially since the 26-year-old man is a volunteer member of the Sahwa militia, also known as "the awakening movement", a military formation of Sunni fighters created by the US Army to confront al-Qaeda in 2006 and now fighting against the Islamic State.

Worried about him, Hussein's relatives inquired about his fate and whereabouts at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in Al Karkh, at the Ministry of Human Rights and Latifyia police station, but without obtaining any information.

Concerned over the hundreds of thousands of people disappeared in Iraq to date, starting from the regime that ruled Iraq from 1968 to 2003, continuing throughout the US-led invasion after 2003 and its current widespread and systematic practice, Alkarama calls upon the Iraqi authorities to urgently implement the recommendations that the CED issued following its review of the country in September 2015, and in particular to ensure that all persons who were forcibly disappeared and whose fate is not yet known are searched for and located without delay.

For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).