2014-09-08 16:03:00

New UN chief warns of "house of blood" in Iraq, Syria


The new human rights chief of the United Nations urged world powers on Monday to protect women and ‎minorities targeted by the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying the fighters were ‎trying to create a "house of blood".  Jordan's Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, the first Muslim to hold the ‎position, who succeeded Navi Pillay, called for the international community to focus on ending the ‎‎"increasingly conjoined" conflict in the two countries, and abuses in other hotspots from Ukraine to ‎Gaza.   Islamic State's Sunni Muslim fighters have over-run large parts of Syria and Iraq since June, ‎declaring a cross-border caliphate.  The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council last week agreed to ‎send a team to investigate killings and other abuses carried out by the group on "an unimaginable scale".  

‎Zeid, Jordan's former U.N. ambassador and a Jordanian prince, described Islamic State in his maiden ‎speech to the Council as "takfiris" - people who justify killing others by branding them as apostates.  "It ‎would be a harsh, mean-spirited, house of blood, where no shade would be offered, nor shelter given, ‎to any non-Takfiri in their midst," Zeid added. He called on Iraq's new government and prime minister ‎to consider joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure accountability for crimes ‎committed there.  The UN’s Human Rights Council has an independent investigation into war crimes ‎by all sides in Syria, where more than 190,000 documented killings have occurred during the conflict ‎that began in March 2011, according to a report by Pillay last month.‎ (Source: Reuters)








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