STAND at USM

Last Update: Jul. 28, 2008 **From the Genocide Intervention Network**

As of the last quarter of 2007, the situation in Iraq remains unstable and dangerous for non-combatant civilians. With bombings and indiscriminate killings continuing on a day-to-day basis, tensions between different ethno-religious sects have resulted in the deaths of up to 100,000 civilians since the 2003 US invasion. In the month of June 2007 alone, at least 1,227 Iraqi civilians were killed. Despite a downturn in violence between September 2007 and April of 2008, approximately thirty civilians die daily as a result of violent conflict.

Meanwhile, more than 2 million Iraqis are displaced within the country as a result of the violence. Another 2.2 million have fled to neighboring countries, leading to the largest refugee crisis in the world.

In October 2007, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction testified before the US Congress stating that Baghdad fears "a new outbreak of ethnic cleansing between Sunnis and Shi'ites next year." Despite these fears, violence in Iraq is decreasing and there is hope that these security gains will alleviate civilian suffering in the country.

The extreme sections of both the Sunni and Shi'a groups are currently driving the ethno-sectarian violence against Iraqi civilians.

• Sunni Groups. Radical groups such as the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party have allegedly fostered attacks against Shi'a and other minority groups.
• Shi'a Groups. Radical groups such as the Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army as well as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council have led attacks against Sunni and other minority groups.
• Other Minority Groups. Kurdish and other minority groups have retaliated against Sunni and Shi'a attacks and have also instigated attacks to reinforce territorial claims.
• US and Iraqi government forces. As a result of counterinsurgency operations, both US and Iraqi forces have harmed innocent civilians.

Violence generally occurs in areas where mixed communities continue to coexist. In these regions, according to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), "both Sunni and Shi'a armed groups carry out direct attacks on civilians through suicide bombings, abductions and extrajudicial executions while making no distinction between civilians and combatants. Such systematic or widespread attacks against a civilian population are tantamount to crimes against humanity and violate the laws of war, and their perpetrators are subject to prosecution." UNAMI and other organizations have listed a large number of crimes that have affected Iraqi civilians on a large scale. These crimes often fall along the lines of what is deemed "soft" ethnic cleansings - one ethnic group trying to purge the territory of another ethnic group, due to political, economic, and/or other historically-rooted reasons. Some crimes that continue to affect Iraqi civilians today include:

• Indiscriminate, extrajudicial killings and summary executions
• Forced expulsion of entire communities
• Large-scale displacement throughout the country
• Car bombings and suicide attacks
• Ethnic intimidation (e.g. death threats that provoke displacement)
• Abductions
• Arbitrary arrests