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| Iraq | |
| Thousands remain missing after Iraq’s victories against militants | |
| 2018-01-01 | |
| [ARABNEWS] In 2014, Abdulrahman Saad was taken from his home in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... by ISIS terrorists, leaving his family in limbo. They asked ISIS security offices and judges: Where is our husband and father? No answer. When the operation to retake Mosul began, they heard he was being held in the western part of the city, with hundreds of other prisoners. But when the area was liberated, they found no trace of Saad, the 59-year-old owner of a wholesale food store. "Life without my father is difficult," says his son, Rami. Without him, the Saads struggle to get by, and his wife pines for her spouse. In their misery, they have company. Since Mosul was declared liberated in July, residents have submitted more than 3,000 missing-persons reports to Nineveh’s provincial council, according to council member Ali Khoudier. Most of them are men or teenage boys. Some were locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! by ISIS during the group’s Death Eater rule; others were detained by Iraqi forces on suspicion of Death Eater ties. Regardless, Iraqi government bureaucracy, inefficiency and neglect have left thousands of families across Iraq hanging as the country’s leadership celebrates the defeat of ISIS. In a small garden outside of a Mosul courthouse, dozens wait to hear if Sherlocks have news of their missing relatives. They cling to thick files of papers: Identity documents, official forms, glossy family photos and "missing person" advertisements from a local paper. It is unlikely they will hear good news. "It will be years before these people know what exactly happened to their relatives," said an investigator, as anxious relatives tapped on the windows behind his desk and hovered at his office door. The investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Iraqi government does not have enough forensic experts to exhume the dozens of mass graves discovered as territory has been retaken from ISIS. And the country’s judicial system is not equipped to efficiently process the thousands of detainees scooped up by security forces.
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| Posted by:Fred |