A new report of the UN Commission of Inquiry dealing with Syria has documented shocking accounts of the ISIS (Da'esh) armed group's use of terror to subjugate Syrians living in its areas of control, as well as the use of extreme violence against both civilians and captured fighters. Its origins lie in the establishment of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) by Abu Musab Al- Zarqawi in 2004. After merging with other Iraqi jih adist groups in 2006, AQI rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Although degraded by the 2006 - 2011 US counterterrorism campaign in Iraq, the group took a dvantage of the instability in the region to further recruit and mobilise, a process that acc elerated with the outbreak of the Syrian conflict. In 2011, ISI members joined local radical militants in Syria as part of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Al-Nusra armed group to fight against Government forces. The report states, The external support provided to all belligeren ts in Syria has contributed to the radicalisation of armed groups, ultimately benefitt ing ISIS. Charity organisations and wealthy individuals funded radical entities willing to promote their ideologies and serve their agendas. Arms and support provided to armed g roups deemed as moderate have repeatedly fallen into the hands of more radical ac tors, including ISIS. 12. The arrival of large numbers of foreign fighter s has contributed to the group’s expansion as the most extreme and experienced indiv iduals have joined its ranks. Until very recently, the international community and neighbouring states failed to put in place efficient measures to prevent access to the conflict area. Based on over 300 first-hand victim and witness accounts, the report provides a unique insight from Syrian men, women and children who fled or who are living in ISIS-controlled areas. Among the commission of inquiry's recommendations is a call to engage international accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, to hold individuals, including ISIS commanders, responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Paulo Pinheiro, Chairman of the Commission, said that testimonies show that ISIS tries to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror and indoctrination. Children in particular are being targeted, with militants using schools to recruit child soldiers. Pinheiro also said that abuses, violations and crimes committed by ISIS against Syrians have been deliberate and calculated. He added that executions, amputations and lashings in public places have become a regular occurrence; that women and girls are being excluded from public life and sometimes sold into sexual slavery; and that children are being indoctrinated in the extremist ideology of ISIS as a way to foster a new generation of recruits. The report noted that ISIS militants have committed murder and other inhumane acts, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery and violence, forcible displacement, enforced disappearance and torture. Witness statements say that ISIS has beheaded, shot and stoned men, women and children in public places across north-eastern Syria. Executions have become commonplace, with corpses being publicly displayed and heads placed on spikes along park railings. The report included accounts of abductions of women and girls who are being held as sexual slaves and says that those who are held by ISIS are being raped by multiple militants when they return from the battlefront. In ISIS-controlled areas of Syria, women and girls have largely been confined to their houses, with regulations dictating what they must wear, who they can socialise with and where they may work. Pinheiro stated that ISIS is using education as a way of indoctrinating a new generation of supporters. He says that, in many areas, the school curriculum has been amended to reflect the ideology of ISIS and also includes weapons training. He said "they are caught, they are indoctrinated and they return to their families and they function as a sort of time bomb because they will be in contradiction of what their parents are practicing in terms of religion or any social practice." Vitit Muntarbhorn, one of the Commissioners, elaborated on the abuses of children. He stressed they were forced to watch public executions and indoctrinated in school. He stressed that child soldiers were not perpetrators of crimes but victims and should be treated as such. He added "it is the adults who are the perpetrators and who instrumentalise the children." The Commission noted that the lack of a political process has allowed extremism to fester and that the international community and the Syrian Government must seek a sustainable solution to the on-going armed conflict.

• published: 15 Nov 2014
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