Statement by representative of the Russian Federation Mr.Sergey Leonidchenko at UNSC briefing with regard to the 10th report of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/ISIL
Mr.President,
Russia attributes great importance to issues of bringing terrorists to account for crimes committed. This is an indispensable part and a crucial element of fight against terrorism as a phenomenon. Therefore we closely follow the activities of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) in Iraq. We thank Mr. Christian Ritscher for presenting the 10th UNITAD report.
We welcome the collection of evidence with respect to ISIL’s crimes against Kakais, Shabaks, Shia Turkmens, Yazidis, and Christians.
We welcome finalization of the initial case assessment reports on crimes against the Sunni commune, and cases of devastation of cultural and religious facilities by terrorists. We would like to study UNITAD’s summarized review of the destroyed and damaged religious and cultural sites in Iraqi communes.
The issue of development of chemical and biological weapons by terrorists in Iraq is of particular interest. We hope that all cases of use of such weapons will be identified and made public as soon as possible. It is already clear that those were not limited to the attack on Taza Khurmatu on March 8, 2016, or the territory of Iraq for that matter. The systematic practice of the use of chemical weapons by ISIL, which even had its own “CW program", simply could not pass by the neighboring Syria.
We note that new tracks of the investigations have been opened to look into the attacks on the Iraqi police and security forces, as well as seizure and exploitation of Iraqi oil.
Mr.President,
The Russian Federation supports efforts to bring terrorists to justice. During the reporting period, we made dedicated specialists available to UNITAD on a secondment basis.
We underscore that countering the impunity of ISIL is not only about collection of evidence. So we remind that UNITAD needs to implement the key part of its mandate and transfer the evidence collected to the law enforcement and judicial bodies of Iraq as prescribed by UNSC resolution 2379. According to the resolution, it is the Iraqi authorities (rather than those of third countries) who should be the main recipients of the evidence collected by UNITAD. Besides, the resolution does not articulate any preconditions for this, including adoption of specialized legislation on international crimes.
We do hope that UNITAD will not ignore its mandate and will give Iraq access to evidence in order to expedite the process of holding the perpetrators to account.
Thank you.
