DUSHANBE, February 19, 2015, Asia-Plus – International media sources report that the United Nations is looking into claims that ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) — already considered the wealthiest terrorist group on record — may be harvesting organs from slain civilians and gaining financial benefits by trafficking the body parts.
Iraq’s Ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Alhakim, on February 17 urged the Security Council to investigate the deaths of 12 doctors in Mosul, Iraq.
He said they were killed after refusing to remove organs from bodies, the
Associated Press
reports.
Alhakim said there is a market in Europe for the stolen organs. The terror group has taken over airports where the body parts could be flown out in deals arranged between middlemen and buyers, he said.
Mr. Alhakim reportedly said bodies with surgical incisions and missing organs had been discovered in shallow mass graves.
Alhakim claimed militants are harvesting the organs as a way of financing the extremist group’s activities,
CNN
said, noting that Britain”s Ambassador to the U.N., Mark Lyall Grant, said the issue has not been officially discussed. Grant said there was no proof or evidence of the claim made by Iraq”s ambassador to the United Nations.
Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special envoy handling Iraq, reportedly said the organ theft claim would be investigated. “We have seen these reports as well,” he said. “However, I do not want to hasten to confirm anything before we study them in greater detail.” Mladenov said reports that the group “is using a human trafficking as part of its sources of income” have circulated for months. “I cannot speak to the extent of that issue until we finalize our analysis of the problem but if one looks at the broader picture, it is very clear that the brutality and the tactics that (ISIL) is using expand by the day.”
The U.S. State Department said it was aware of the “deeply disturbing comments” about the alleged organ trafficking but wasn”t able to confirm them. “We also have no reason to doubt them given other similar atrocities that have been documented and other heinous crimes for which ISIL has proudly taken credit,” the State Department said.
CNN
reports that Turkey”s semiofficial Anadolu news agency and other outlets reported last month that ISIL had announced the opening of a medical school in its main stronghold in northern Syria.
The Independent
quoted Elijah J. Magnier,
Al Rai”s
chief international correspondent, as saying that Mr. Alhakim’s claims should be treated cautiously. He told
The Independent
: “ISIL doesn”t have the market in this current global war against it to be engaged in this business [organ harvesting]. This requires contacts that Isis is losing.”
An ISIL militant was reportedly also quick to deny claims made by Mr. Alhakim, saying the group would not have time to collect the organs of those they killed. He was quoted by Mr Magnier as saying: “If [these claims were] true, this would be a general policy for ISIL that it would not be possible to hide.”
Another militant said it would be easier to harvest organs from prisoners but the group chooses not to, saying: “Organs are preserved naturally in prisoners and could be harvested when needed. It is easier to harvest organs from prisoners than from the dead, which is not the case.” The militant stressed that organ-selling would not raise substantial funds to maintain the group.
ISIL has been defined as the wealthiest terrorist group on record, using a combination of black-market oil sales, extortion and sophisticated social media to raise money to fund its expansion into Iraq and Syria, according to the U.S. Treasury.
The terrorist group pulls in about $1 million a day, according to the Treasury.
Extortion, such as demanding money from truck drivers and threatening to blow up businesses, is another revenue stream for the group, in addition to robbing banks and gold shops.
The income helps finance a growing stream of suicide attacks and assassinations, officials said. It also aids the recruitment of Sunni tribal fighters and finances spectacular prison raids that liberate hundreds of fighters, as well as attacks on police patrols.
ISIL controls vast areas of northern and western Iraq, as well as much of northeastern Syria — and exercises draconian authority in areas as far apart as Anbar in western Iraq and Aleppo province in northern Syria. The group also continues to pick up endorsements and pledges of allegiance from other jihadist groups, most notably in Libya and Egypt.
